The Cursed Mummy of Pharaoh TutRa
by xTheNamelessx
Summary: The twins visit Uncle Nimrod for the summer, and soon they find themselves in new trouble. Nimrod XOC Rated T for minor violence and romance scenes.
1. Prologue

_So, I had read a couple of the serie's books when I was younger, and recently found "The Blue Djinn of Babylon" in my bookcase, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to read it again. It actually brought back many memories, and so I decided to write a fanfic on it, based on a little story I had thought back then. I had always liked Nimrod, because of his elegance and loud attitude, and thought he really needed a pairing. My story is set after the Blue Djinn of Babylon and before The Cobra King of Kathmandu. _

**_The Children of the Lamp belong to Phillip Kerr, but the Shaitan tribe as described in my fan fiction story, as well as the characters listed below belong to me:_**

_Aizit Zora_

_Sechrazat Zora Sechrett_

_Goliath Sechrett (King Scorpio)_

_Pharaoh Tut-Ra and The Cursed Mummy of Pharaoh Tut-Ra_

_Sebastian Thorn and his Crew of the Desert Rose_

_Ahmed Sechrett_

_Kasmir The Assassin_

_Celeste Ravazo_

_Ali Baba and the 40 dead thieves_

_Coradu the Lake Monster_

_The Eyeless Monster of the cave_

_The Scorpion Warriors_

_The Ifrit gang (Except for Iblis and his family members)_

_I'm on vacation right now, and have taken my laptop with me to my cottage. I will update approximately once to twice a week. _

_I hope you enjoy reading,_

_XO, _

_Nameless_


	2. Back to London

John and Phillipa Gaunt are two special twins. They both are djinn, guardians of luck in the human world. They are also very lucky, because being a djinn means having supernatural powers. However, it sometimes means going into trouble as well.

John and Phillipa have a wonderful house, on route They also had two uncles, Alan and Neil , who once were dogs, thanks to the twin's mother, Layla Gaunt who also was a djinn, transforming them in order to protect her beloved husband, Edward Gaunt. The twins also had a djinn Uncle, from their mother's side. His name was Nimrod, his favorite color was red, and he also was their mentor regarding the use of djinn power.

It was summer, and the twins would finally visit their uncle in London again. While they were waiting to board on the plane to London, Phillipa noticed an urgent newsflash in the waiting room TV. It was about Egypt or something, but Phillipa didn't pay that much attention to it, because they were in line to check in, and she was also very anxious about the journey.

Once inside the plane, the twins settled in their seats and John switched the TV on, in case he spotted something interesting. Unlike normal twelve-year-old children, John and Phillipa were well-versed and would never watch something like a cheap cartoon. John was switching channels so fast that Phillipa could barely keep up with his pace. The newsflash about Egypt was still on, but John was too tired to watch, and thus they both fell asleep.

After four hours, that went by like minutes, due to their sleep, the twins reached London, and got off the plane to check-out. Uncle Nimrod was waiting for them with his arms wide open. Both children rushed inside his lap. After greeting and welcoming them, Nimrod led the children inside his Rolls Royce, where they saw Mr. Groanin, Nimrod's one-handed butler, again and hugged him as well.

"I'm so glad, telling you, so glad I finally see you kids again." , Mr Groanin said, wiping a tear off his cheek with his only hand.

On their way to Nimrod's house, the twins had the chance to discuss that weird newsflash about Egypt with their uncle, who was always well-informed.

"Oh, so you finally head about it! Your mother was never going to tell you, just in case you were too interested and wanted to visit...It really is a significant discovery, my children. Djinn are closely connected to ancient Egypt, especially Pharaohs like Tut-Ra."

"Um...Uncle? I'm not quite sure we got it yet, what was discovered?"

Nimrod rolled his eyes and tried not to seem too disappointed at his nephew.

"The Cursed Pyramid of Pharaoh Tut-Ra of course!"

"...The what?"

Nimrod rolled his eyes again.

"Don't get upset, Nimrod." , Mr Rakshasas spoke from inside his lamp.

The children, who didn't know he was there all the time, greeted him.

"Pharaoh Tut-Ra was the owner of the infamous Bottle Of Bones, a bottle that is said to be able to cage every djinn, despite the amount of power they have. It is believed the Bottle Of Bones was made of the bones of an angel and can cage even the most powerful djinn, The Blue Djinn of Babylon."

"Definitely a dangerous weapon." , Nimrod added.

"No djinn can escape the bottle, and once it gets trapped inside, it can only be freed by the one who trapped it."

"Wow!", John exclaimed, " I could easily imagine Iblis locked up in there!" , he chuckled. Phillipa laughed.

"But, that's only a legend, right?" , Phillipa asked.

Nimrod shrugged.

"You can never know. Nevertheless, the archaeologist who discovered the Pyramid happens to also be a djinn. Her name is Sechrazat Zora Sechrett."

"Oh, that is brilliant. This way we can have direct access to the sacred bottle, and prevent it from being stolen by the Ifrit." , Phillipa said, somewhat satisfied.

"I'm afraid it's not that brilliant, Phillipa.", Nimrod responded, "You see, the Sechrett family are the leading the Old Shaitan tribe, which are in a current...vendetta with both the evil and good side."

Phillipa raised a brow. "How could this be?"

"The Shaitan used to be one united tribe a long time ago," Mr Rakshasas intervened, "Until the Ifrit decided they could profit from having another tribe as slaves. The unity and elegance of Shaitan captured their eye, thus they forced the Shaitan people to obey them. Some of them did, and some others resisted. The ones that did are the New Shaitan tribe, also known as Shaifrits, because there having been mixed weddings between the tribes. There is also the old and original Shaitan tribe, but there have been very few descendants left."

Mr Groanin stopped the car, for they had arrived.

"So why wouldn't the archaeologist help us, since she is fighting the Ifrit as well?", John asked, who had barely been able to keep his eyes open all of that time.

"Shaitan don't like other tribes, with the exception of Jann. I'm guessing the purpose of Sechrett is to find the Bottle Of Bones, so that she can revenge Ifrit for the fate of her tribe."

"Doesn't seem like a bad idea to me!" , Mr Groanin said, while opening his door. "I never, say never, liked those guys!"

Nimrod smiled politely. The twins looked at the house, and then at Mr Groanin, who was now carrying their luggage inside. They had to admit they had missed his grumpy face.

After they had dinner together, everyone went to their bedrooms -and Mr Rakshasas to his lamp- to rest for the night. Before they went to bed, however, the twins had another small talk with their uncle, concerning the cursed Pyramid. Phillipa, especially, was very interested in the option of meeting the archaeologist and trying to get her to help them. Nimrod, after many pleas, announced he would book three seats to the archaeologist's upcoming press conference.


	3. Finding a new team

John woke up around twelve o'clock. Once he had gotten dressed and washed, uncle Nimrod and Phillipa had already left the house and he was stuck with Mr Groanin. The one-handed butler informed him his uncle and sister had gone shopping. John wondered why they would do such a thing so early in the morning. Mr Groanin was more grumpy than usual today, so John decided he'd help him around with the housework a little bit, just to make him a bit more cheerful.

Two or three hours later, the back door opened and Phillipa walked in, holding a box wrapped with a red bow. Nimrod followed, closing the door behind them. John, who had spent the morning eager to know why they abandoned him like that, rushed to interview them.

"You asked me to get you to meet Mrs Sechrett. So I got an invitation for the Press Conference she's giving tonight."

John raised an eyebrow.

"That doesn't explain your disappearing like that!", he then whispered, "I had to put up with Mr Groanin all morning!"

Phillipa giggled and his uncle gave him a big smile.

"We're sorry" , Phillipa said, "but we had to get her a present. Mr Rakshasas says Shaitan are very proud djinn. She'd probably get insulted if we just showed up empty-handed."

Nimrod nodded in a manner that showed he agreed. Mr Groanin walked in to announce lunch was ready, and so they ate together. Then, the twins took a nap and woke up around five o'clock. After Nimrod had his traditional tea, they all got dressed up, and set to find the building where the conference was held. Inside the car, Mr Rakshasas, whom they had taken with them in his lamp, felt obligated to inform them about the mysterious Shaitan tribe.

He told them about the Sechrett family and Sechrazat, now defacto leader of the Old Shaitan Tribe. He also narrated part of King Scorpio's story, Goliath Sechrett, who once ruled both good and evil, but was then doomed by his own power. Once they reached the building, Nimrod took a little time to warn the kids about the dangers of being so close to an evil djinn, for example sliding their middle finger across their palm when they shook her hand. The twins walked inside, and Nimrod arranged to meet Groanin in about one or two hours.

The three of them sat somewhere near the end of the room, which was now full of journalists and reporters. The excavation team began to walk in, and they all answered some questions. The atmosphere was light, casual and delightful. Until they announced Sechrett's name.

Sechrazat was a tall, dark woman, with long feet, and cat-shaped eyes. She sat in the middle of the conference table, and answered most questions with a serious face, despite the fact everyone around her seemed cheerful. Soon enough, the atmosphere had changed from light to heavy, from casual to formal. Even the journalists couldn't help but be influenced by her serious look, and many of them hesitated to question her. The woman was extremely polite to all of them, without necessarily being pleasant as well, and she answered even the most silly question in a formal manner.

Only when the conference was over, and the cameras turned away, the twins saw her smile and shake the British Museum president's hand joyfully. Nimrod waited until the room was less crowded, and then walked towards her, with the twins following him. Before he had reached her, she turned around, as if she had sensed his presence.

"Sechrazat."

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Nimrod Godwin." , she smiled. "And these ought to be young John and Phillipa Gaunt." , she extended a hand, with her long middle finger folded across her palm. "Nice to meet you, children." Her voice was husky, and she had a very distinctive accent.

Unlike Iblis, or Mimi de Ghull, Sechrazat's smile had something pleasant in it. You could tell she meant every word. The twins shook her hand.

"So, what brings you to my humble conference?" , she said, looking at the man in red.

"Well, let's start by congratulating you for your latest discovery." , Nimrod said, and slid the box wrapped with a red ribbon out of his pocket. "And give you a little something to celebrate."

The woman's smile became even wider. Phillipa expected her to say something like "you shouldn't have" , but she didn't. In fact, she didn't even say thank you. Slightly offended, as she had chosen the gift herself, Phillipa faked a smile. The woman opened the box. It was a small, glass bottle made of fine crystal. To humans, it was just a common bottle, but to a djinn it was both useful and beautiful, as the light was divided into colors of the rainbow inside the bottle. She smiled, now revealing her pearly white, long teeth.

"It's beautiful. Very kind of you. Now, why did you come?" , she suddenly changed from pleasant, to strict. Phillipa noticed John couldn't help but have his eyes stuck on her chest. The scorpion medallion both kids had seen earlier was an actual black scorpion hanging from its tail.

"We wanted to know more about the Pyramid."

"That you seek, I don't posses." , she said, raising a dark brow. Nimrod wasn't taken by surprise she already knew why they had come.

"So you haven't found it?", he said. Honesty is something people like Sechrazat appreciate.

"It's none of your business.", she abruptly said.

"That is not the answer to my question.", he cleverly talked back.

"It's a possible answer.", she crossed her arms around her.

"Then I'd like a different one."

She groaned, and the twins noticed her eye's pupils had turned smaller and thinner. Just like a snake. There was something about their yellow color that made them look poisonous. John had the feeling he'd get lost in them if he kept staring.

"Listen to me, Marid,", she said in a voice low and dangerous, with her eyes stuck on the man opposite her, " Stay Out Of This ."

Nimrod kept a calm face and smiled politely.

"Let it be your will, then." , he said. Sechrazat widened her eyes in surprise, as the man turned away and left, followed by the children.

They walked out the door, and inside the Rolls Royce that was waiting for them a few steps away. Mr Groanin set off for the house.

"So, we'll just give it up like that? And let her have the Bottle of Bones?" , John said anxiously.

"Well, there's nothing else we can do for the time being. But no, we won't give it up."

John smiled in relief. "Good!" , after a second of silence he added, "So, what's the plan?"

"There is no plan." , Nimrod said calmly. "We'll just give her sometime and see if she changes her mind."

Almost a week went by, and the twins had began to get disappointed. Partly because they were getting bored shortly. However, one afternoon it all changed. Nimrod was having his tea, and the twins were playing Djinnverso in the living room. All of sudden, someone was knocking their door. Mr Groanin slowly walked to open, mumbling something about people selling leaflets and how he'd want them to disappear. The door opened and the shadow of a tall woman appeared.

"I need to see your master."

Once the twins heard the familiar voice, they rushed to the door, to find a soaked Sechrazat Sechrett holding a leather piece with something wrapped inside it and looking very nervous. Mr Groanin was apparently unsure of whether to let this woman in. After the twins' reassurance, and a hot cup of tea, Nimrod, the children, Mr Groanin and Mr Rakshasas were sitting all together in the living room, next to the fireplace. It was a pretty warm afternoon, but they had decided it'd be better to have some heat inside the house, for poor Mrs Sechrett who was wet to the bone.

"I don't understand. How could you be so wet?", Mr Groanin asked. The woman was shaking and her lips had turned purple. Nimrod asked Groanin to go bring her some blanket. The butler obeyed.

"Th..th..they did it.", she mumbled through shaking teeth. "Th...th...they doomed them all..."

John raised a brow. "Who doomed them all?"

"Ifrit."

"They attacked you?" , Phillipa asked.

"No...not me...my t-t-team.", her eyes became widened in sock again, as if she was reliving the moment. Mr Groanin came with the blanket, but even this didn't seem to warm her up.

"Didn't you try to help them?", John said.

"I c-c-couldn't."

"It is a water-bounding spell.", Mr Rakshasas said, "Djinn like her are sensitive to it."

"What did they come for?", Nimrod asked in a serious voice.

"T-t-the chart."

"There's a chart?", Nimrod said in surprise. The woman let the leather bag drop to the ground from her lap. It opened and some pieces of old paper appeared. "Dear Lord...that means you know where the Bottle is!"

"N-n-not exactly. You see, it is a chart of where the chart that shows the Bottle's location is. We found it in the back entrance of the Pyramid. But I...we can't get in. Not until we know where the actual entrance is, and I...we have a map of the inside."

"You're going alone?", Mr Groanin asked, " That could, I say it could, be dangerous."

The woman looked up at him. There was something inside her tired eyes that John sympathized with. She shrugged.

"I don't care."

"Let's be honest-" Phillipa began to say, but was interrupted by the woman's cold stare that now fell on her, "I mean...let's face it," the girl continued, "you can't go in there without a team to help you. And right now you have none."

The woman sighed.

" To tell you the truth, that's why I came here in the first place.", she paused but no one spoke, so she continued. "What I mean is...I was actually wondering if you could help me find a team. My tribe is scattered around the globe, and I'm pretty infamous between other tribes. I can't take humans with me, for many of our secrets will be exposed. I have already asked my cousin, Aizit, to join me. But I will need at least four, or five more people so..."

"We'll come with you." , Nimrod interrupted her. He had seen the excitement in John's and Phillipa's face when Sechrazat mentioned finding a new team. And Mr Groanin couldn't resist, since he was bound to follow his master everywhere. Plus, he had to get to the Bottle before anyone else. It was important for such a valuable item to be in good hands.

Sechrazat raised a brow. "You will?"

"I believe it is the perfect experience for my nephew and niece. Educational, adventurous, a good chance to practice their skills, yes, we're definitely in.", Nimrod spoke again, before Mr Groanin could complain. The butler groaned and looked away in anger. "But, there will of course be some...rules.", he added.

The woman ignored his final comment. The look on her face changed from sorrow, to happiness, and then to a serious expression. She stood up and threw the blanket down, picking up the charts.

"Here" , she said handing them to Nimrod, "have a look at these. I think I'll go back to my hotel, have a warm shower."

The twins smiled. John was ready to offer her their shower, but he caught the look on Nimrod's face. They shouldn't trust her too much. She didn't seem that dangerous, just a bit annoying. But then again, she still was a Shaitan.


	4. Planning the journey

Next morning Sechrazat dropped by the house, to get her chart back, and discuss the plan they would follow with her new team. Mr Groanin had boiled black English tea for the five of them, making sure it was very hot when he served it.

"Alright, before we begin," Nimrod started, "I would like to set some ground rules."

Every one nodded, except for the dark woman, who preferred to remain silent until she heard his proposal.

"Rule number one; Nobody injures, kills or turns people to animals."

Sechrazat sniffed and looked away.

"Rule number two; Nobody uses their power against the team."

The woman crossed her arms around her torso, as a sign of displeasure.

"Rule number three; We all work together, no one is "boss" and gives orders to others."

"Oh come on!" , the Shaitan groaned, "Alright, I won't transform anyone, but somebody has to be the "leader"!"

"Somebody, dear. Not you." , Mr Rakshasas said from inside his lamp.

"Who then?", her eyes suspiciously inspecting everyone in the room one by one.

"I think we should vote." Phillipa said.

Sechrazat was obviously starting to get annoyed with their rules and "democratic" spirit. But she said nothing and, unlike expected, she nodded. Shaitan were very good hypocrites, and she knew those guys were the only way to get to the Bottle. Light-headed and kind; they'd make the perfect team. She'd have them all under control in no time. Especially that fool, Nimrod. She smiled. _We'll see the rules you'll set, when you'll be locked inside the Bottle of Bones_ , she thought. _And all your power will be mine..._

They cut small pieces of paper, and everyone wrote the name of who they thought should lead the mission on it. Then the papers were put inside a jar, and Mr Groanin counted the votes. The winner was John, who immediately jumped up in excitement. Sechrazat yawned, like a cat bored of playing with its victim.

After having elected their leader, the team started to work on the charts. Phillipa, who was set in charge of the route planning, would draw a line on the map of the route they would follow. Mr Groanin, who was responsible for the food supplies, was already writing a list of the things needed. Nimrod chose the accommodation and transportation management, and immediately started looking for hotels around the areas they would visit. Sechrazat was sitting next to Phillipa, carefully hearing out her ideas and adding or correcting parts of them. To their surprise, the twins found her company pleasant. John was watching over everyone, making new proposals and corrections.

Planning the route ate up most of their time, as expected. They finally agreed on it at about seven o'clock in the afternoon, after five cups of coffee, a busy lunch and some cool beverages. Their journey would start next Monday, after a weekend of relaxation. Sechrazat highlighted the importance secrecy throughout their mission; Ifrit wanted this Bottle more than anything else. It could provide them the power to rule all the djinn tribes.

The map was pointing out three locations where parts of the original chart were held. The first one was in Loch Ness, Scotland. The second in Delphi, Greece and the last one in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, where Sechrazat happened to originate from. Nimrod proposed they used the national train lines to get to Edinburgh, and then switch to the green line to get to Perth and finally reach Inverness, the closest stop to Loch Ness area. He had already booked first-class tickets for next Monday, thanks to an old friend of his, working in the rails. Phillipa said they should next get a plane to Greece. Nimrod booked AEGEAN airlines, the best Greek available. Finally, Sechrazat claimed the transportation from then on. She owned a house in Lebanon, the closest port to Piraeus, central Greek port. They'd use a ship owned by a friend of hers to get to her cottage, and then cross the desert to Saudi Arabia using their powers. Mr Groanin had completed the list of things needed, thus took the liberty to read it out loud.

"Why do we need all this baby food for? The kids seem pretty old to eat baby food, you know.", Sechrazat asked when he was finally done reading.

"But it's not for the kids of course. Baby food is the most clean and nutritious food one can purchase and..." , Sechrazat stopped listening and simply watched his jaw move up and down for the next five minutes, while Mr Groanin was explaining the benefits of baby food.

"Yeah, I believe you.", she said coldly when he was finished and stood up. "I think I'll be heading home now. Too much boredom with you people might turn me into a koala bear." ,she finished with a chuckle and headed to the door.


	5. ES1 Extra Scene: Iblis

Sechrazat walked into the restaurant "Aladin". One of the few restaurants in London that offer tasty Arabian food. It was never too crowded, but never empty as well. The perfect place to keep a low profile. That was the exact reason why it was chosen to be the best place for secret meetings, especially with dangerous people. Despite its notorious fame, though, it still attracted many stupid tourists who took photos of practically everything. Sechrazat hated tourists. Especially Chinese tourists. Their white T-shirts saying "I 3 London" , their annoying chit-chat, and their stupid cameras flashing as they photographed every piece of shit they were told was important to the local people. Oh, how she longed to transform those little Chinese ladies into ants and step on them. She groaned and passed another table of tourists by heading for a small table for two, at the distant left corner of the room. There, a man was sitting alone, toying a fork between his long fingers.

"I'm late. Sorry.", she pulled the chair on the other end and sat opposite him.

"I'm used to it by now.", Iblis said nastily. The woman smiled. "How did it go?", the man continued.

"They fell for it. As expected.", she said proudly. "We depart on Monday for Scotland. I called Aizit and he'll meet us in Edinburgh."

"Good.", a group of tourists chose a table right next to them. But once they turned around to see two pairs of furious eyes, they re-considered their choice and moved someplace else.

"Sometimes I just want to turn them into cockroaches, then spray them with anti-bug spray.", Sechrazat commented. Iblis left a chuckle. The woman took the liberty to continue. She always had to be careful around people like Iblis. Her every word could cause his anger. Of course, she wasn't afraid of him, or at least not as much as she should be. "Are you hungry?"

"Your hair looks better caught up. Shows off your neck.", he said. She seemed confused.

"Um..."

"And I definitely like this emerald ring. Must be very rare to find.", he continued, his eyes shining. Sechrazat kept staring at him, slightly shocked. "And this top is..."

"What are you doing, Iblis?", she interrupted him. His stare met hers.

"Trying to get my appetite started.", he said in a dangerous voice. She looked away.

"I'm afraid I don't share your mood.", she stated coldly.

"You should be.", he warned her.

She chuckled sarcastically and rose from her chair.

"I'm not doing this. Not with you. Not anymore.", she said and began to walk away.

Unfortunately, her pride and stubbornness forced her to exit through the front door. A big mistake, because she found herself in the middle of the narrow alley that lead to the restaurant. And of course, Iblis followed her, now beginning to feel annoyed by her turning him down. She was ready to head out of the alley, when a strong hand grabbed her wrist. She turned around and pulled her arm out of Iblis' grasp. But he was strong. And she was vulnerable. He pulled her on him, whispering in her ear. She didn't try to release herself, just silently obeyed.

"Next time you dump me like that, will be the last time you ever dump anyone.", he said.

The woman pushed him away, but didn't leave.

"Next time you treat me like that, will be the last time you ever treat anyone.", she talked back, her eyes shining with fury. Iblis chuckled and placed his hands around her small waist, then shoved her against the wall.

"When I want something, I get it.", he smiled devilishly.

She chuckled. "The only thing you want tonight, is a big kick in the nuts. So let me go, before I let you have it."

It took him a while to find his lost temper again. He softly leaned his head and placed a wet kiss on her neck. She caressed his hair as he did. He continued to kiss, but she pushed him away. She then turned around and quickly disappeared into the misty night. Iblis smiled. An evil smile. The smile of someone who would always get what he wanted, eventually.


	6. Beastnest

Monday arrived too early. The twins had spent the weekend exercising their powers, with uncle Nimrod. Mr Groanin had taken some time off, to relax and prepare for the upcoming "dangers", like, according to him, the "climate changes and poisonous bugs they may have to deal with".

On Monday morning they all set for the train station, where the other two team members had arranged to meet them. Once they arrived, they found Sechrazat and a young boy waiting in the train platform.

"Good morning.", she said, in a manner that stated it wasn't good at all for her. "This is my cousin, Aizit.", she gently pushed the boy forward. He was definitely older than the twins, Phillipa accessed he was around eighteen. There was no similarity between Sechrazat, whose skin had a light cocoa color, and the boy, who was pale white with a lot of freckles.

Aizit extended a hand towards John and Phillipa. "I'm Aizit.", he said. John was the first to shake hands with him, carefully sliding his middle finger across his palm. Phillipa greeted him next, using the same technique.

"The train will be late.", Sechrazat said. "They made an announcement on the speaker before you came."

Nimrod smile, sensing her displeasure.

"It's ok. I'm sure it won't be that late.", he re-assured her. She looked away, snobbishly.

The grown-ups decided to head inside for a cup of coffee -or tea in Nimrod's case- and the children -and teenager- followed. John and Aizit were already beginning to get along with each other. Unlike most young djinn the twins had met, he was polite and seemed harmless. Sechrazat on the other hand, was beginning to feel very angry about the train's delay, causing the TV's in the cafeteria to start buzzing and finally burn. The staff hurried to fix them and the woman started to giggle, while watching them struggle to find a stable signal.

That's more or less how time went by until the train arrived. The team carried their luggage inside and decided to divide into two groups, as there were two coupes available. The first group consisted of the twins and Aizit, while the second consisted of Sechrazat, Mr Groanin, Nimrod, and Mr Rakshasas who would stay inside his lamp. Phillipa wasn't very excited with the group she was into, as Aizit and her brother seemed to ignore her, and spent their time chatting about things that didn't interest her, or she didn't know about. Mr Groanin, was upset as well, because he didn't trust Aizit with his boss' beloved nephew and niece. But he had to put up with it, as no one wanted to irritate the furious Sechrazat even more.

On their way to Endimburgh, they had five or six stops. The day easily went by, as everyone was busy with their thoughts. John was listening to Aizit talk about his life, Phillipa was solving math problems, Mr Groanin was cooking baby food and Nimrod and Sechrazat were discussing the possible location of the chart piece they were looking for. In the original script, an underwater temple was mentioned. But the Loch Ness lake was practically huge, and they didn't have the time needed to search through it all. The text also mentioned some signs that would guide one to the Temple. But it wasn't translated, and even though Sechrazat was a very good translator, it pretty much took them all day to finish it.

By night no one could sleep. Phillipa didn't trust Aizit, who was sleeping like a baby, but still seemed unsafe to spent the night with. Sechrazat was tormented by her own thoughts, thus spent the night smoking out of the open window. Nimrod, who was tired, couldn't sleep knowing she was up, because, despite her virtuous side, Sechrazat was still an evil djinn, and they could never trust her completely.

He was actually right to believe that, because the woman opposite him was much more dangerous than she seemed. The ancient spells and bounding methods her race used had passed from generation to generation, and she had mastered many of them. A characteristic example; the Snake Eye. The Snake Eye is a bounding method, that needs to be practiced more or less all throughout a djinn's life in order to be easily used. It is a way for a djinn to bind a mundane or another djinn and change their will, or read their mind, by looking inside their eyes. However, there are some serious side effects of using Snake Eye. Most obvious ones include dark circles around the eye, and an unnatural yellow color. In this way, other djinn may recognize those capable of performing the Snake Eye and avoid their glare. And of course Nimrod had recognized Sechrazat's Snake Eye from the first minute he ever saw her. But it wasn't as dangerous as one might think; strong djinn can easily avoid being captured in a Snake Eye, because it requires a lot of power to break the resistance of one.

The moon faded into sunlight, and the team got off the train, to board on the one travelling towards Perth. This time there were three coupes available. Phillipa took advantage of that, and asked her Uncle to share the third coupe with Mr Groanin, who gladly nodded when he heard the girl's proposal. During the day, John asked Aizit about how he found out he was a djinn.

"I was born with it. I pretty much knew it since...always. My mother was a djinn, my father was a djinn...It was normal for me go on vacation riding a whirlwind.", Aizit answered. John felt a bit jealous of him. He could use his powers whenever he wanted to, and didn't have to ask his mother's permission first. But, on the other extreme, wasn't it more dangerous that way? Without someone older giving you advice? Aizit didn't mention anybody instructing him, he was left alone to discover the dangers and benefits of being a djinn.

On the next coupe, Phillipa and Mr Groanin were discussing about hazardous bugs. Phillipa wasn't very interested in this talk either, but it certainly was better than having to listen to Aizit's stupid stories all day long. Plus, Mr Groanin's grumpy face was a bit amusing. Next wall, Nimrod and Sechrazat were bored. They were both smoking, and Nimrod's smoke was creating a clock that counted the minutes passing by. The woman caught sight of it and giggled.

"Come on! You can't be that bored.", she playfully said.

"Indeed.", he blew another clock, "I can."

She smiled and created a shape that looked like a three-headed rabbit.

"What do you think that is?", she asked him.

"I don't know. A demon or something?", he said scratching his chin with the tips of his fingers.

She shrugged and blew another one. It looked a lamp.

"Oh that's a lamp.", Nimrod stated.

She nodded and blew a small cloud that looked like, actually it was the exact replica of, Nimrod.

He laughed joyfully. "You make me look like a third-age gentleman with diabetes."

She laughed as well. "Don't blame me!"

He raised a brow and blew a cloud that looked exactly like the woman opposite him.

"Copy-paste.", she exclaimed and faked some annoyance.

He smiled. Suddenly, the train halted and everyone jumped off their seats. The lights switched off and then back on, and some horrible noise was heard from the rails below. "Welcome to Inverness", a weird voice said from inside the speaker. Nimrod jumped up and hurried to the twin's coupe to check on them. After making sure everyone was ok, they got off the train, and carried their luggage to a cab, Nimrod had arranged to meet them. From this moment on, Sechrazat would always blame him for not renting a car, because the cab driver denied to take them to the lake. Nimrod had booked rooms for the seven of them in a village, right next to the lake's northern shore, the area marked on the chart. The village was called Beastnest, because many people believed Nessy, the monster of Loch Ness, visited this side of the Lake occasionally, during the winter.

Of course, djinn had their own legend about that monster. It was said somewhere inside the lake was a cave-entrance to the real lake, which hosted an ancient underwater temple. The temple was guarded by Coradu, a snake-like monster that breathed ice and killed every passenger who tried to get to the temple. Many djinn claimed Nessy was just a cheap copy of the original monster, another djinn tradition that humans found interesting and adopted. And Sechrazat, as well as Nimrod and Mr Rakshasas, were some of those djinn.

The team first visited the guest house Nimrod had rented, to rest and settle their stuff. Sechrazat proposed renting a boat and having a tour around the lake, before they actually started searching for clues. Aizit offered to ask the locals about any unusual passages or trails around the lake. John and Phillipa would study the map, while Mr Groanin would check the restaurants around the area, for one that was sufficiently clean to dine in. Nimrod and Sechrazat rented the boat and in the afternoon they all boarded to explore the shore.

To their disappointment, nothing could be seen inside the water, because there was a lot of mist. However, John noticed the waters were colder around the shore, than in the deep. There was a spot, next to the shore, were the water was so cold, fumes would rise from the surface. Cold as ice.

When John mentioned his observation at dinner there followed mixed reactions. Aizit claimed to have seen it too, while Phillipa, mostly because she was mad at John dumping her for Aizit, disagreed. After a pause of silence, Sechrazat, who in the meantime had a look of surprise drawn upon her face, smiled. A big, shiny smile, revealing her teeth.

"You boy are a genius!", she said and scratched John's head, messing up his hair. "He's right. The is cold, because a frozen lake is under it. Below that spot, there must be a cave-entrance where the water comes in from!", she exclaimed excitedly and jumped up. "Bring the excavating tools ashore. I'll bring the rest of the equipment and you, Phillipa, bring the chart. We'll meet there in ten minutes.", she said and ran towards the guest house.

Ten minutes later, the team was trying to remove some big rocks that were covering the small cave. The passage was filled with water, and only one person could swim through at a time. Luckily, a shop selling fishing equipment was open, despite the late time, and Nimrod purchased five diving uniforms. Sechrazat offered to go first and dove in the water, after Aizit wrapped a climbing rope around her waste. If anything went wrong, she'd pull the rope and they'd bring her back to the surface. The water was freezing cold, but it didn't stop her. The others were watching her from the shore. Her tall, slim silhouette was moving slowly inside the water. Suddenly, she disappeared.

After five or six minutes, her head showed up again out of the water. She was smiling.

"Dive in! It's freezing, but it's also worth it!", she yelled.

Aizit went next. John followed, Nimrod, and finally Phillipa. Mr Groanin decided to stay on the surface in case something went wrong. Below the surface, however, the group was exposed to the most incredible sight ever.


	7. Swimming in the darkness

Water was flowing through the cave-entrance, forming little bubbles at the bottom. The deeper they swam, the lighter the cave became. Phillipa could now clearly see designs on the walls around them. She thanked God the passage was big enough not to give her claustrophobia. They swam towards the light for a few minutes, then halted stunned by the outrageous spectacle below them. They were in the bottom of a lake, yet on the ceiling of a big cave. The water around them snobbishly ignored the laws of gravity and stood still on the rock, allowing an air-passage of about five meters long to form between this lake and the bottom one, which contained dark, misty water. Sechrazat, who was first in line, looked back at the other four, gesturing towards the gap. She waved her one hand as if she said "follow me" and flapped her hands in the water, using just enough power to jump out of this lake, cross the air passage, and dive into the darker pond below them. Phillipa looked at her brother horrified, her eyes barely able to be seen through the underwater mask she was wearing. John was the first to notice the oxygen inside their oxygen tanks was running low and grabbed his sister's wrist, pulling her down -or up because in this cause down was up and up was down- with him.

Once they had all made it safely across the air gap, they hurried out of the black water and onto a small reef that provided a land space barely able to host them all.

"Great. Trapped between water.", Aizit said, taking his mask off.

Phillipa took hers off and shook her soaked hair, causing them to become a wide red afro. John laughed at her "clown head" and helped their uncle up on his feet.

"Now what?", he said.

Everyone remained silent for a minute.

"We're here. Definitely. I can feel it...", the woman said, looking down inside the water.

"Let's dive.", John proposed.

"Dude! You nuts?", Aizit pushed him slightly. "You can't see your own nose in there."

John, slightly bothered, said nothing. "Let's make something to light it up."

"But how?", Phillipa said. "We're all wet to the bone, and I'm cold.", John noticed her lips had turned purple. The atmosphere inside the cave wasn't exactly cold, but full of humidity, which, along with the water, made a pretty nasty combination.

"Sechrazat and Uncle Nimrod can do it."

They both snapped out of their thoughts to give John a nasty look.

"I don't function underwater.", the woman said and turned back around, bending to touch the water.

Nimrod said nothing. It was obvious he didn't want to use any power like this. When djinn colide with water they become vulnerable to bounding methods. What if Sechrazat was lying all along and just looking for a chance to absorb his power? He was too suspicious to do it, and no one could blame him.

"We can't stay here!", Phillipa complained.

"Use your power.", Sechrazat turned around, eyes on Nimrod, with a big smile stuck on her dark face.

Nimrod folded his arms around his torso, looking away. He then mumbled something between clinched teeth and the waters around them formed a wave, uncovering a red submarine.

"Gee! Cool!", Aizit screamed. John agreed with a nod. The name "Nautilus" appeared on the ship's side.

"Whoa! The Nautilus! Like the 20000 Leagues Under The Sea!" , Phillipa struggled to catch her lost breath from enthusiasm.

Nimrod smiled, proud at his own creation, as the children hopped inside through the opening on the submarine's back. Sechrazat passed him by, pushing her shoulder against his abruptly, hoping he'd loose balance and fall inside the water. But her aggressive behavior only caused her tripping on a nearby rock, Nimrod grabbing her by the arm to hold her up. He smiled but she didn't, as both of them jumped inside the floating submarine.

The inside was perfectly designed to be both efficient and comfortable. The seats were covered by expensive leather. There were three seats and one on the back, each equipped with a radar to check on different areas around the submarine. In the middle was a steering wheel and a black chair for the Captain. The kids hurried to their seats, Aizit in the center and the twins on the sides. Sechrazat rolled her eyes and walked to the back seat.

"Alright sailors," Nimrod said, putting on a captain's hat. "Let's get this old pile of rust going!"

"Aye Captain!", John exclaimed enthusiastically as Aizit hit the "Start engine" button. He also turned on the bright lights, unraveling the mysterious darkness around them.

"Are you crazy!", Sechrazat screamed at him. "Turn them off you dunce!", she yelled. Aizit quickly turned them off.

"What's gotten into ya?", he said, both insulted and curious.

"Are you totally stupid? There's a monster swimming in these waters! How do you think he'll react once he sees a submarine making its way to the TEMPLE IT GUARDS!", she yelled.

"Yeah? And how do you think it'll react if we crash on it because we CAN SEE NOTHING IN THE DARK!", he talked back. Sechrazat's blood began to boil, but Nimrod stopped them before she could answer.

"Please be quiet.", he said patiently. "You're both right, and that is why I equipped the boat with special radars on each side, that can give us an exact view of the surroundings. We won't have any lights open and yet be safe."

The two evil djinn sniffed and looked away from each other, returning to their places. It wasn't long before John caught sight of something.

"Uncle be careful there's a reef on our right.", he said, looking at the big black object in his radar.

Sechrazat's brow flew up. "This isn't a reef. It's perfectly square!", she said now noticing the object on her own radar.

"IT'S THE MONSTER!", Aizit screamed in despair.

Phillipa rolled her eyes. "The monster can't be square! They say it looks like a sna..."

"Not there! HERE!", he hopelessly pointed at his own radar. The girl looked at it stunned, her knees shaking. It was a long, wide object, very close to their front.

"Turn around!", she yelled. Nimrod did as he was told, now facing the square object and gaining distance away from the beast. Soon it disappeared from the radar screen.

"Next time we see her," Sechrazat said, "try not to yell like crazy."

"Her? It's a girl?", John asked, as the submarine was traveling towards the square object, which always seemed to be close, yet far away.

"You don't know the legend?", she asked. Both twins shook their heads. "God what has you uncle been teaching you?", she said in another failing attempt to disturb him. But Nimrod simply ignored her nastiness. "Rumor has it Coradu, the monster, was once a woman and the secret lover of King Solomon. He possessed divine power, and the only map to the Bottle Of Bones,the El Mahazena Elque in Arabian. Coradu envied this power and tried to steal it from him. But Solomon understood her plan and banished her here, in this secret lake, to guard a fragment of the map which he destroyed, in order to prevent people from being blinded by their own greed, like his ex-lover.", when she was done, she looked away.

Now the radars were banging like crazy, because the submarine was so close to the object the ship's walls were about to collide with it. Nimrod steered the wheel to the left, in order to avoid collision and Aizit stopped the engine. Some lights inside the submarine were only lit while the engine worked, thus the room immediately became darker. Sechrazat walked to John's radar, where the object in front of them was easier to be seen.

"That's it.", she whispered behind him. She was so close above him, John could feel the hair on his neck going up when her husky voice landed in his ear. "We have to get in.", she looked back at the others. Nobody answered.

"Someone has to stay guard the boat.", Phillipa said.

"I don't suppose you assumed you were coming.", Nimrod said.

"But I...", she stopped and imagined herself swimming in the darkness, in this freezing cold water, between narrow passages, with a monster sharing the same waters with her. She caught sigh of John with the corner of her eye, who was buttoning up his diving suit.

"Oh, by you I meant John as well.", Nimrod gave him a stern look. John groaned and sat back down. The twins were of course disappointed, but said nothing, because they knew the great responsibility their uncle had.

"Well, I'm going.", Sechrazat said. "And I definitely don't need a middle-aged Marid to slow me down.", she dissed him.

"He wasn't coming with you anyway. I don't like the water."

"Or the dark.", she smiled devilishly and buttoned up her diving suit, while adapting the oxygen tank on it. Nimrod smiled back nervously. "Aizit, come.", she said. The teenage boy nodded and wore his own suit. Then Captain Nimrod created a big glass window, through which the ones left in the boat could watch the back of the swimming couple.

It took them less than three minutes to get to the stony entrance of the Temple. Sechrazat had taken a dynamite stick that would work underwater with her, in case anything went out of hand. Aizit would follow after her. The two of them went inside the narrow passage that was the entrance, and disappeared. The problem with the plan occurred to Nimrod when it was too late already; there was a way in, but no way out. They could go inside the passage, because they would swim in the same direction as the water. But they couldn't swim in the opposite direction, so they would stay trapped inside. Of course, the man didn't know Sechrazat had already taken care of it, and was beginning to worry more and more about the two of them.

The inside of the Temple was full of mud and you couldn't see the floor because water had flown inside. The reason why it was still dry to the top, was because of the smaller holes in the bottom, that allowed water to slip out. Aizit was the first to take his mask of, testing the air. It was too humid, but better than the oxygen tank. He nodded to his cousin to do the same. Then he lit the torch Nimrod had given them and looked around. There were many stones fallen on the ground, but none of them looked like a chest or something that could store the precious fragment. Sechrazat, who being an archaeologist was used to seeking small things in wide unknown places, was the first to track down a small semi-round piece of rock with some weird shapes carved on it. A supernatural shine lit up the yellow in her eyes.

"This is it.", she whispered in mere ecstasy.

"You found it?", Aizit said, walking towards her. She nodded. "Good. Now hide it somewhere and lets go back.", the boy smiled an evil smile. She shook her head, without losing her expression of pure satisfaction.

"My, my Aizit...what an ass you are.", she turned around, carefully baring the rock segment. "We will show them the fragments as we get them, you little potato-head . Otherwise they'll realize something's not right. How can you fool someone when they know you're trying to fool them?", she said, Aizit looking down in embarrassment. "No wonder Iblis chose to use your body to track me down. You're so damn stupid you could never resist his will.", she laughed devilishly. Aizit looked up at her.

"How will I know it when he gets inside me?", he asked nervously.

"Trust me, honey, he won't let you know it.", she left another chuckle and slid the dynamite out of her pocket.

"Don't you think the bang will awaken the beast?", the boy asked.

"I do.", he waited for her to continue but she didn't so he was about to continue when she did. "But I don't care."

In less than a minute after, the two of them rushed inside the boat, followed by the giant snake, which now had surrounded them. Panic was everywhere, hearts pounding like crazy as the submarine rocked from side to side, hit by Coradu's giant tail.

"Start the engine!", Nimrod yelled silently, a mere whisper which echoed like hell in John's dizzy head. Unfortunately the engine lit up the lights inside the boat, which reflected outside through glass window, and embraced the long dark silhouette of Coradu's body. Now the twins could have a better look at it; a giant snake with fins on its back and front. She opened a horrible mouth, revealing uncountable rows of teeth placed in a spiral. John noticed it was eyeless, but his watching of the beast could wait for now Sechrazat was yelling at him.

"TURN AROUND! NOW!"

John did as told, eyes stuck on the unbearably ugly creature. The boat started to shake and finally turned around, now heading towards the surface. Phillipa screamed as the monster made a nasty attempt to bite them while they were leaving. But to everyone's -but Sechrazat's- surprise, it didn't hunt them.

"How did you know it wouldn't follow us?", John later asked.

"It only guards the Temple. When the Temple was gone, there was nothing for it to guard."

Mr Groanin was waiting for the five of them ashore. His anxiety was growing bigger as time went by and no one would show up, resulting in him nervously biting the nails of his only hand. Then, all of sudden, he felt a hand on his shoulder and gasped in surprise. It was a man.

"Are you alright, sir?", he asked. Mr Groanin nodded, still shocked by his late night visitor.

"Fine. And you?", the one-handed man noticed the mysterious dark green eyes opposite him.

"I'm good.", he reached out a hand full of white spots. Mr Groanin was familiar with the disease vitiligo and didn't ask. "My name is Kashmir.", he said with a perfect English accent. Mr Groanin hesitantly shook his hand.

"I'm Harry."

"Nice to meet you, Mr Harry.", the man looked around. He was younger than Groanin but not too young. He seemed so cheerful, the butler almost liked him. "So, I guess I'll be going now. It's pretty late. Nice meeting you, sir.", he smiled and walked away, disappearing into the velvet night. Mr Groanin was left staring at him for a minute, then his focus was captured by the sound of splashing water. Two heads popped out of the lake, one of them resembling Phillipa's. Aizit, who was swimming next to her, had a big smile stuck on his face. Mr Groanin was about to scream in joy, when Phillipa placed a finger over her lips to indicate he had to be silent. They didn't want to wake the villagers up so late at night. The other three followed, Sechrazat first.

They all smiled at each other, and the twins gave each other a warm hug, celebrating their accomplishment. Except for Aizit, who was still nervous after his small talk with his cousin inside the Temple, everyone was feeling a little relieved. Then they headed back to the guest house, Nimrod narrating the story to a grumpy Mr Groanin, who kept reminding them how foolish and dangerous it was to go down such a deep dark lake. All of them smiled, lost each one in their own thoughts, unaware of the dark green eyes watching their every move.

* _El Mahazena Elque is the term for The Stored Power. It isn't accurate though, cuz although I wish I knew Arabian, I don't so I had to settle with Google Translation. :P_


	8. Getting to Athens

The next morning they boarded on the train to get to Edinburgh. It was a different one, a much more modern. The toilets were clean, to Mr Groanin's relief, there was a huge buffet, to Aizit's excitement, the coupes were much bigger, thank God for Phillipa and, unfortunately for Sechrazat and Nimrod, there were smoke detectors in each coupe. Also, there was a very annoying waiter who'd drop by every five seconds asking them if they were okay or needed something. Sechrazat was really frustrated with him, but thanks to Nimrod's notice, didn't turn him into a monkey as she intended to. They decided to share the coupes like they had when they first traveled to Scotland. Phillipa was again displeased, because she'd have to put up with Mr Groanin's theories about poisonous insects, while her brother would be having fun with Aizit. Once they were into their coupe, Sechrazat and Nimrod looked up at the smoke detector. The last mumbled something. There was a buzz and some blue flashes and then the small round machine broke with a tiny "bang". Sechrazat smiled.

"I'm starting to like you," she stated.

"I didn't destroy it. They'll be able to fix it when we get off the train."

She sniffed and looked away.

"Were I you, I'd have shoved the thing up that waiter's..."

Phillipa opened the coupe door, rushing into the room anxiously. Sechrazat paused to look at her, and decided not to continue. Nimrod looked back at his niece sharing the same nervous look.

"Is something wrong?", he asked.

"There's a scorpion in our coupe!", the girl replied.

The dark woman changed her neutral expression into a puzzled one. Nimrod quickly stood up and hurried to the next coupe holding Phillipa's hand, followed by a not-so-excited Sechrazat. For Shaitan scorpions were harmless, delicate creatures, whose natural behavior resembled their way of thinking. Scorpions are well-known for their tendency to suicide when I danger. Shaitan didn't exactly suicide, but they certainly were too proud to admit defeat, and would rather kill themselves than let anyone else brag about doing it. Of course this didn't apply to all cases.

Inside Phillipa's coupe John had his back stuck on the wall next to the entrance, knees shaking as the big -considering its average size- scorpion was walking around the table, more like a nervous human than a frightened animal. Mr Groanin walked slowly to it, and was preparing to hit it with John's shoe, when Sechrazat walked in.

"Do it and it'll be the last thing you ever do," her voice low and dangerous. Groanin turned around and dropped the shoe off his only hand. The woman smiled pleased her threat had worked and walked to the tiny black scorpion. She then reached out her hand, palm wide open, and waited for it to climb on it. "You can come out," she said, and before she had completed her sentence smoke started to form, as a djinn was releasing themselves. The astral body of theirs was now somewhere between them, and occupied the body of a waitress who was unlucky enough to walk inside. Her eyes immediately went coal black, as the djinn entered her.

"Good evening," it said from inside the mundane, the voice so aristocratic and cold, it made the hairs on Phillipa's neck rise. "My name is Celeste."

"I know. What do you want?", Sechrazat stated coldly. Celeste seemed suddenly uncomfortable.

"Um...I think it'd be better if we talked in private," she seemed to have blushed a bit.

"I think not. Now tell me, before I turn you into a frog," Sechrazat said, her cat-eyes narrowing as her deep boredom was replaced by irritation.

"It's about the fragment," Celeste seriously said. Sechrazat looked at the other four inside the room and sighed.

"Follow," she said, grabbing Celeste's arm and dragging her to the next coupe. There they sat down one opposite the other, after Sechrazat had made sure the door was locked tight enough. The other four were now exchanging worried looks.

"She didn't sound very nice," Phillipa was the first to break the silence.

"Never judge a book by it's cover, dear." Nimrod said, a friendly piece of advice to his niece.

"Isn't it suspicious, I say it seems suspicious she appeared just like that," Groanin took the liberty to comment. Nimrod sighed and sat on the seat next to him.

"You might be right. But then again, you could also be wrong."

"What do you propose?", John asked.

"I have already applied a djinn binding to prevent them from bottling us up, so I believe we should just wait and see. Time will answer all your questions," he seemed to want to add something more, "Eventually."

Right then Aizit walked in, with a big chocolate muffin in hand.

"Dude this buffet is awesome! You gotta check it out!", he said, taking a big bite out of the muffin. John smiled, and so did Phillipa when she noticed the remaining chocolate around his lips.

Unaware of what was taking place next wall, Sechrazat and Celeste were closely examining the precious fragment of stone. It was a half-circle, with a line of weird ancient shapes and designs. If you took a closer look at it, you would realize it very much resembled a compass. The kids hadn't yet seen the fragment, for Sechrazat felt they didn't have to, since they wouldn't understand. But she had showed Nimrod and Mr Rakshasas, who had spent last night in the hotel room studying about the lost fragments, and was now capable of recognizing one. The two women remained silent for a moment. Then Sechrazat spoke.

"So? What do you think?"

The djinn opposite her seemed skeptical.

"They said it could be. But you can never be sure..."

Sechrazat sighed in despair and frustration. _Now I'm going to become meean_, she spoke inside her head.

"I'm not sure they have realized the importance of this. You see, this piece of wet rock could be our ticket to getting back what's ours. It could be freedom..."

"Or doom," Celeste interrupted her, "You're playing with forces beyond your...our limits. And how can you be so sure Iblis isn't around here eavesdropping?"

The taller woman rolled her eyes and gave the djinn–waitress a contemptuous look.

"Iblis may be evil, but he's also lazy. He wouldn't bother following me around the globe, just to make sure I don't betray him," she stood from the chair, "I want you to meet us before our departing from Greece. You will expect my call about the time and date. Now leave, I'm tired."

The woman stood up and extended her hand for Sechrazat to shake it, but the last one preferred not to. Celeste nodded and left the waitress' body, her eyes becoming normal again. The waitress, whose name was Katy -Sechrazat could read it on the employee card pinched on her vest- stood bewildered before the exit, looking at Sechrazat.

"Is something wrong?", the dark djinn asked, smiling politely as she did.

"I...um...I don't...no, madam."

Then she turned around and left, mumbling some weird words as she did. Sechrazat chuckled and turned back at the table, to examine the semi-circular stone. She caressed the cold material with the tips of her fingers, then carefully wrapped it with a piece of cloth and put it back in her sack voyage. The door opened again and Nimrod entered with a map in hand. The woman looked up at him ready to say something, but momentarily changed her mind. The man in red smiled.

"So, who was your friend?", he asked gently, with this British accent the woman was beginning to like.

"A friend," she stated coldly and took a box of cigars out of her purse.

"How unexpected," Nimrod joked, even though his fellow passenger didn't seem to share the mood.

"Just because people like you doesn't make you a pleasant guy. Now if you could shut you gob and sit, you would be very pleased," she said, faking some annoyance.

"Me?", he was obviously amused.

"Yes. Because you'd have skipped the part where I make you do it.", she said nastily. It was clear to both of them how jealous Sechrazat was of him. Nimrod was a successful leader of a tribe bound with moral virtue and love, whereas Sechrazat and the left-overs of her tribe were nothing but jewels on the crown of Iblis. Also, Nimrod had better control over his power, because he wasn't motivated by feelings of anger and frustration, which occupied most of Sechrazat's mind. The rest of it was filled with despair and hope that one day she'd get rid of the curse to be the one who has to struggle and bring the Shaitan back from the dead.

It took them three hours to get to Edinburgh, from where they would take the plane to Milan, and then Athens. Throughout the journey Sechrazat didn't speak a word, but gazed at the small rock piece. She was normally too _ thus never thought of the consequences of her actions. But this time she had to be very careful. Had she made a mistake, her tribe would be doomed to serving the Ifrit for the rest of eternity. And having Nimrod snoring on the opposite seat really didn't help. But she had to admit he looked so cute when he was asleep, she simply couldn't wake him up.

They spent another two hours in the airport, buying things while waiting for their plane, and finally boarded to set off. Sechrazat didn't count the time it took to get to Italy, because, to her surprise, she fell asleep on Nimrod's shoulder. When she woke up they had already reached Milan, and were asked to remain seated, because they'd use the same plane to get to Greece. The next flight was a two-hour one, to Phillipa's relief, because she was starting to feel unbearably horrible inside such a small place. Finally they boarded of the plane and into the airport, where Mr Rakshasas had a nice chance to practice the Greek he had studied throughout the flight.

"Καλησπέρα, μπορείτε να μου πείτε που είναι η έξοδος?" (kalispera, borite na mu pite pu ine I eksodos?) (good evening, could you tell me where the exit is?)

Sechrazat burst into a hysteric laughter when she heard him for the first time. They took a cab to Hilton Hotel, where Nimrod had booked for the six of them, each would have their personal room, and later went out to have souvlaki, which John and Aizit loved, at a local restaurant he had looked up during the flight. Before they went to bed, Uncle Nimrod visited each twin in their room. He said goodnight to both of them and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a very long and tiresome day, as they would find themselves searching for the ancient fragment, inside the legendary cave of Medusa.


	9. ES2: Late Night Fantasies

Late that night Sechrazat was in her room and, having had her hot shower, sat on the edgeher bed, wearing a short satin nightgown. Opposite the soft double bed was a mirror and a small table where her purse was placed. She laid back for a moment and closed her eyes, relieving her body from the tension of the past forty eight hours. She had swam down a dark lake, found the first fragment and traveled all the way from Scotland to Greece.

_She rose up and walked to the table, reaching for her purse. The black scorpion, tied from his tale to a necklace chain walked out of the open purse. In the eyes of someone who had never seen such a creature before, or avoided watching them during their encounters, it was nothing more than a dangerous insect. Sechrazat softly caressed its back with the tips of her fingers, then placed her lower jaw on the table, to be closer to it._

"_What am I doing, father?", she said, her eyes watering. "What...", a couple of tears escaped her shut eyelids, the scorpion crawling up on her hand. She opened her eyes to look at it. It was too elegant for such a small creature. The woman wiped the warm liquid off her face and put the insect back on the table. She stood from the chair and went to get her coat. Then, having locked the door behind her, Sechrazat headed for the room across the hall. _

_Meanwhile Nimrod was in the shower, enjoying the hot water flowing on him. It was so hot that the bathroom mirror had blurred from the humidity. He was lost in his thoughts, something hot showers are likely to cause, when the door knocked thrice. At first it seemed like another side-effect of the boiling hot water, but after the knocks repeated themselves, he realized it sadly wasn't. Wearing his bath robe he opened the door to find Sechrazat standing outside, a coat barely covering her long feet. He began to say something but was interrupted by her hands pressing something hard against his chest. It was the rock fragment wrapped carefully with a piece of silk._

"_Take it," she coldly said. He hesitantly took it from her._

"_Why?" She sighed._

"_I don't want to do this anymore. You can have your stupid map and your stupid Bottle, and I simply don't care. All I want is my peace and quiet, away from you!" She meant to say more but was distracted by his shocked look. He leaned and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. She was caught by surprise. "Wait. This isn't supposed to happen." _

_Nimrod leaned his head to the side. "Why not?" He asked smiling. She looked around confused. _

"_What the hell is wrong with me?", she merely whispered. The man gently crossed his arms around her. Sechrazat pulled away and pinched herself. It caused her a remarkable amount of pain, even though nothing changed. She was in the same hall, with the same man, wearing the same nightgown, which was now having her feeling exposed." _

_His eyes changed. They became more deep and dark, no longer the bright, honest eyes of Nimrod Godwin. It was no longer his cheerful gaze, but the evil glare of Iblis. She backed away feeling her back crash onto the wall._

"_You won't quit. You can't. You will find the fragments, assemble the map, solve the puzzle, and bring the Bottle Of Bones to me...Me," he said that in a manner that pretty much resembled a snake's whistle, the woman almost able to see a snaky tongue flicking out towards her, "And you don't have a choice, Sechrett. You will serve me...throughout eternity..." Then there was this evil chuckle and the body of the man standing opposite her starting to smoke and twirl, finally turning into a snake. The archaeologist felt her feet shaking, her abdomen sobbing with fear and despair. Iblis was creeping towards her, having her stuck on the wall. She couldn't run. She couldn't escape. He would devour her..._

She woke up with a gasp, tears running down her eyes. After looking around the room to make sure everything was okay, she laid back, hugging the pillow and burying her face in it. Her body was still shaking.

Meanwhile, across the hall, Nimrod was having his own wicked fantasies. There were thoughts. Thoughts he couldn't get off his mind, even if he knew he had to. It was the worry about the twins. He had to call their mother sooner or later and let her know. It was too irresponsible of his he hadn't done so earlier. Of course he knew Layla would probably freak out and yell at him, but he had to go through this. And then there were this flashes of the woman next door. The scent of her hair when she leaned on his shoulder and slept during the flight, a moment when she dropped her pen and bent down to catch it...and this peculiar feeling he hadn't had since high school. Nimrod certainly was charming and all, but he never had a particular interest in women. And he had always thought, the rare times when he chose to think about stuff like that, when he'd finally fall for one, it'd be someone nice and beautiful, with rare qualities, who'd understand and care about him and wouldn't demand his total commitment to their relationship. And Sechrazat met none of this criteria. She wasn't extraordinarily beautiful and definitely nothing like nice, who cared for no one but herself. Well, perhaps she didn't like commitments either, but he could never -EVER- like someone such as herself.

However his mind went on and on dreaming about her chocolate skin. And while she was across the hall, crying her heart out, Nimrod was forming little broken hearts with the smoke of his cigar.


	10. The GAD

Next morning Nimrod thought he woke up earlier than everyone else when the clock across his room ticked half past seven. But he was surprised to find a lonely Sechrazat sitting on an aloof table across the breakfast room of the hotel. He grabbed a plate, filled it with some goodies out of the buffet, ordered a cup of tea to the waiter -he found him really unprofessional because the waiter would yawn every three seconds due to the early hour- and walked to the table where the woman was.

"Good morning," he smiled. She was busy scanning her laptop screen and didn't bother looking up at him.

"Mornin'"

"Mind if I join you?" She shook her head.

"Nope."

Nimrod sat opposite her and placed the plate in front of him. Right then the yawning waiter brought him his tea.

"So, how was your sleep?", he said, taking a sip of hot tea. She shrugged.

"Good," she paused for a second searching for the appropriate words, "And yours?" He smiled.

"Fine." The woman nodded as if she was satisfied, even though she wore an I-could-care-less look. Then she typed something and sighed. "You know, I was doing some research on the area, and it turns out excavations have been carried out around the cave."

"Oh," he took another sip, "Is that a problem?" She pursed her lips and looked at him chewing his breakfast.

"No, I guess not. Excuse me," she said and rose to re-fill her cup with some coffee.

The twins and Mr Groanin joined them shortly. Except for Phillipa's complaint that her toast had been burnt -the waiter had fallen asleep and forgot to turn the toaster off- breakfast was just fine. Aizit was the last to wake up but this didn't delay them, because he was so hungry, he ate three plates of fruits, bread and butter, toasts and cheese cakes in less than fifteen minutes. The show of him greedily devouring the buffet ended with a huge burp which made Groanin's face turn red from anger, even if he spoke nothing. Finally, they set off in a rented mini-van to travel to the ancient Delphi, where the Cave of Medusa was located. It was a three hour journey and Nimrod felt his feet numb after a while. While Mr Groanin was driving, Sechrazat was searching the net for more information on the excavations and what the archaeologists where looking for.

"I don't understand, if the angels wanted to hide it somewhere, why didn't they take it with them?", John asked Mr Rakshasas who was now sitting between them on the back seat.

"They were probably restrained by some law of theirs. You see, angels rarely appear to humans. They prefer to remain in total secrecy," the older djinn said. John looked away out of the window. He felt his mind relax for a second, as his eyes watched the clouds move on the blue sky above them. His peace and quiet was disturbed by Sechrazat's cursing in Arabic. Of course John didn't understand what she said, but he could tell it was a curse from the way she said it.

"What's wrong?" Phillipa asked.

"We have to get to a library. Now!" she said, more of frustrated than anxious. Nimrod, sitting next to Mr Groanin, slid a map out of his pocket and searched on it for the closest city. Half an hour later they found themselves in the big library of the city of Thebes. There was an office near the entrance and behind it a female librarian. Sechrazat told them to go wait somewhere near until she was finished and walked over to the woman behind the office.

"I need to access the G.A.D. section," she said and searched inside her purse for a little card with her picture, signature, and some info about her on it, "Here's my pass. The name's Sechrett."

The librarian took the card, looked at the woman opposite her and the picture and smiled.

"Have you had it authorized?" she asked politely. Sechrazat raised a brow.

"Authorized?"

"You know, some countries need to have it authorized so that it can be used withing these countries." the librarian continued to smile, something that annoyed Sechrazat even more.

"What do you mean "some countries"? It's a G.A.D. Pass, which if I'm not mistaken, means a Global Archaeological Database pass! GLOBAL! Or is Greece a non-global country?" she sarcastically said. The librarian lost her temper for a minute, but took a deep breath and continued.

"I'm sorry but that's how it works. I can ask my manager to-", she couldn't finish her sentence as the evil djinn performed a Snake Eye on her. The pupils in Sechrazat's eyes got thinner as she gazed directly in the woman's opposite her. The librarian widened her eyes.

"You will do that authorizing thing now. No manager, no questions. Understand?" she merely whispered with her low and husky voice. The woman nodded. Then Sechrazat's eyes went back to normal and she smiled as the woman started to fill an authorization form in the computer in front of her. She turned around to see Groanin walking towards the two of them.

"Are you having a problem, I say is there a problem?"

"Everything's fine, go get Godwin and the kids.", she gestured towards the four of them with her head. Mr Groanin nodded and walked over to them. Sechrazat patiently leaned on the counter.

"May I see some ID, please?" the librarian asked. The tall woman reached inside her purse for her ID card and handed it over. The librarian asked for a minute and rose from her chair to enter a door behind her, Sechrazat's ID still on hand. The archaeologist shrugged and threw a lazy glare at the computer. But her eyes widened as she noticed a familiar name appearing on the list of the members who had visited the library the last week. Rudyard Teer.

"What the hell?" she whispered and slid behind the counter to have a better look. She clicked on the name and the membership page of Rudyard appeared. He had last visited the L.A.R.D (local archaeological research database) section three days ago. She felt her heart pound louder. The shadow of a man standing opposite her cut her breath, forcing a gasp out of her mouth. She looked up to sigh with relief when she saw Nimrod.

"What are you doing?" She couldn't answer because the librarian showed up from behind them. The woman quickly slid on the other side of the counter, next to Nimrod. The staff member sat on her chair and handed the tall djinn her ID card along with her G.A.D. pass.

"Here you go," she softly said and looked at Nimrod, "Is the gentleman part of your current team?", she asked. Nimrod was ready to reply positively when Sechrazat grabbed him from around the waist and faked a huge smile.

"Oh no, that's my husband..." Nimrod turned his head inwardly to look at her with a surprised and questioning look. "We're...just married..."

"Oh, that's great," the librarian smiled. "Enjoy your reading," she said and blinked. Sechrazat gave her another huge smile and walked away, pulling Nimrod along.

"Why did you lie?" he later asked.

"Because she'd want to authorize your pass as well," Sechrazat said and realizing she had only confused him more added, "It's a long story."

The man nodded and decided to put the incident into his "For Later Thought" folder. Now the team had the once-in-a-lifetime (except for archaeologists) experience to walk in a G.A.D. Books were everywhere, on huge shelves, categorized by date, name of the researcher, area of the research and finally alphabetically. There was also a computer next to each hall, where a book-listing program made archaeologists' lives easier. Sechrazat walked over to one and entered the name "Phillip Stuart" and the year 1996. Three results showed up. The two were references in a book named "1990-2000; discoveries within a decade" and the last one was a book named "Inside the cave; the work of Phillip Stuart". Sechrazat clicked the final result and the number of hall and shelf showed up. She then turned around to face her team, who in the meantime was looking around the room in awe.

"Okay people, do whatever you want, just don't disturb me." And with that she turned away heading towards the third hall shelf number thirty four. The rest of them walked around the room to find a good book, preferably something on the Lost Fragments or the Bottle of Bones -the exception was John and Aizit who noticed there was a small couch with a TV in a nearby corner and preferred it to the books.

Phillipa was the first to make a tremendous discovery. "Uncle Nimrod! Uncle Nimrod!" she yelled and ran to him with a huge book in hand.

"What is it, dear?" he looked down at his niece and gently took the book in his hands.

"Look! Here," she pointed at a page. It was an old script some archaeologist had found in the tomb of Pharaoh Hanumis the Fourth, describing an "bottle that holds unlimited power" he had given as a gift to his cousin, and the one who murdered him, Pharaoh Tut Ra. It also said the bottle held the power of a "servant" -probably some bottled up djinn. Nimrod smiled.

"Take this to Sechrazat, will you?" Phillipa nodded and rant to the woman. She found her skipping through some books she had laid on one of the desks.

"Sechrazat," the girl hesitantly said. The woman didn't look up.

"I thought I said don't disturb me," she mocked.

"This is important." The woman sighed and looked at the girl opposite her.

"What?" Phillipa handed her the book and was left looking at her expectantly as the woman skipped through it.

"Interesting," she mumbled, "I've been doing research on this bottle all my life and I've never heard of this book."

"Are you implying it's fake?" Phillipa asked, kind of disappointed Sechrazat wasn't impressed by her discovery.

"No, I'm not saying that. It just looks suspicious. Where did you find it?"

"Last hall, lower shelf." The dark woman nodded. And flipped the book around to see its back-cover. It had two holes, as if it had been bitten by a snake. Sechrazat's eyes widened and she let it go and land on the floor.

"Who touched it?", she said, now really nervous.

"Me...and Uncle Nimrod." Phillipa answered, her voice shaking because she realized something wasn't right.

"Go wash your hands!" Sechrazat yelled and hurried to Nimrod who was skipping through the "Latest history of Egyptian civilization". The woman pushed the book away from his hands and he turned to look at her shocked.

"What's going on?"

"I'll explain later, wash your hands!" Nimrod raised a brow.

"Are you..."

"WASH YOUR F*CKING HANDS NIMROD!"

The yelling was so loud it made him want to slap her against the wall. But for a very peculliar reason he just turned around and did as he was told. The woman yelled for Aizit and John to hurry out of the room, and pushed Mr Groanin out as well. Finally she hurried to the woman's bathroom to wash her hands.

Once they were out of the library Sechrazat felt everyone's gaze on her. Mr Groanin was annoyed because she had interrupted him from reading about the construction of the London Bridge, Aizit and John were dizzy from too much TV, Phillipa's heart was beating like crazy, and Nimrod was looking at her expectantly, the look a child gets from its mother when it's done wrong.

"I...that book...um...There was a cockroach in it." Silence. Everyone kept their gaze on her. She groaned. "Alright, someone had applied djinn binding. There was a snake bite at the back of the book."

"Classic Ifrit binding," Nimrod said.

"Probably," she kind of blushed and looked away.

"That's all you know?" John asked suspiciously.

"Yes," she looked away, sighed and walked towards the mini-van which was parked outside. Her cousin, Aizit, followed her lazily.

"Now that was weird," John said to his sister when both Sechrazat and Aizit were gone.

"Did you notice she looked away when you asked her if she knew more?" Phillipa said, raising a brow.

"Do you think she's hiding something, I say could she be hiding something?" Groanin worriedly asked.

"We might have to keep an eye on her," Nimrod stated and followed inside the van.


	11. Deal, No deal

The librarian girl smiled as a boy around sixteen walked in the building. He wore a charming smile and a pear of torn jeans.

"Good morning, Mr Teer" she smiled and opened her palm for him to hand her his library card.

"And good morning to you too," the boy said and handed the card over. She threw a quick look at it, typed something, and gave it back.

"Enjoy your reading," she said cheerfully.

"Oh, I will," the boy stated and walked towards the Local Myths and Traditions section. He skipped some shelves and reached the most distant hall with the air of someone who knew exactly where they were going, even though the building was vast and very easy to get lost in. He reached for a book in a nearby shelf and flipped through the pages searching for a particular one.

"My my what do we have here..." an evil smile spread across his face as he took it between his hands, "Oh how I love reading," an evil chuckle followed.

"I bet you do," Rudyard sharply turned around to find a tall silhouette leaning against the wall a few feet away from him. He sighed and raised a brow.

"About bloody time you came," he said and flipped through the pages.

"Thought I'd make you wait a little," Sechrazat walked out of the shadows and neared him, like a cat nearing a mouse. Rudyard looked up. "Daddy and I made a deal. And it didn't involve unexpected visits." The boy gave her a mocking smile.

"Well, daddy thinks it's about time to end this deal. And you, actually."

Sechrazat looked at him for a minute with the look of someone who wasn't exactly sure whether they were being ridiculed, or pissed off. She bent to the level of Rudyard, standing a few centimeters away from his face, so his eyes looked directly into hers.

"Then tell your daddy," she said, a voice low and dangerous, "It's On." there was a horrible pause of silence, one that follows after such a dangerous announcement. "And give him," she leaned her head to the side and softly pressed her lips on the boy's, "This."

Rudyard was soon left alone in the huge hall wondering whether she had just kissed him, or he had been daydreaming.

Back at the team's hotel, everyone had gathered in one of the lobbies, equipped with ping pong, TVs washing machines and some coffee tables. John and Aizit where indulging themselves into watching TV, while Mr Groanin was washing some of his underwear for the third time, in case some exotic bacteria had reached it. Phillipa was playing Djinnverso with Nimrod in a nearby table. The peace and quiet was interrupted when the tall dark woman that was Sechrazat walked in. She threw a suspicious look around but no one looked back at her so she shrugged and went to get a bottle of whine from the buffet. She then turned around and disappeared.

After a while, and having finished his game with Phillipa and lost -he used to let her win quite often to boost her self-confidence, but he had to admit she had become too good for him- Uncle Nimrod took the elevator to the third floor and rang Sechrazat's doorbell. He waited for a couple of minutes until the door was open, and the woman showed up holding an empty bottle of whine.

"Got alcohol?" she sounded a little weird.

"You're drunk."

"No, I'm not!" but the stupid look on her face betrayed her. He gazed at her expectantly. "Ok, maybe a little..." she pressed her forefinger together with her thumb. Nimrod rolled his eyes.

"What's going on?" She shrugged.

"I'm drunk. Come in," she pulled him inside before he could protest. The first thing Nimrod noticed were the red stains on her bed, probably from the dripping whine bottles laid on it. Between them there was also a beer and a half-empty bottle of whiskey. The man sighed.

"Are you trying to kill yourself? How much have you had!" he turned around to look at her trying not to fall down as she neared him.

"Not much...", she fell on the couch like a rag doll falling on the floor. He sat next to her and carefully took the bottle from her fingers. "Hey, wanna hear a secret?", she whispered moving closer to him on the couch. Nimrod moved closer to her as well, enjoying the flutter in his stomach he got from standing too close to the heat she was giving off. She giggled. "Promise you won't tell!"

"I won't tell." She giggled more and moved even closer, placing her hand softly around him.

"I've been lying!" she said, as if it was the most exciting thing in the world. He froze, his smile softly fading. She nodded excitedly. "I've been helping the Ifrit." she burst into a hysteric laughter, her arms still around the man in red. Nimrod abruptly pulled away and looked at her in shock.

"Why? Why did you do it!" he tried not to yell but couldn't. She placed a finger on his lips.

"Shh! I'll tell you. See, I made this deal with Iblis that if I helped him bottle you up, he'd help me to the Bottle and..." Nimrod jumped up and stormed out of the room. The woman followed him, bumping on some walls as she did, a bottle of wine back in her loose grip.

"Where you going?" The man didn't answer, but continued to walk nervously across the hall to his room.

"I can't believe this...How could I've been so naive? So irresponsible..."

"What the hell are you mumbling?" she leaned against the wall, head towards the ceiling, as he unlocked the door.

"You," he turned around pointing at her, his eyes narrow, "...stay away from me. From us. And the kids. For your own safety," he threatened and slammed the door behind him. Sechrazat softly touched the hard wood, he palm sliding softly on it, tenderly, as if it were the skin of a sleeping lover. Then she slowly leaned against it and felt her back sliding lower and lower until she sat on the floor, head between her hands, crying.

"What have you done you heartless bitch!" she raised her hand and slapped herself noisily. The scorpion crawled from her chest, where he had been hanging as a medallion, to her neck.

Next morning came with lots of hurting and numb body parts and a banging inside Sechrazat's head. She found herself in her room, lying on the bed with her clothes, surrounded by bottles of alcohol. Her stomach was protesting loudly so she washed her face and walked to the bar near the reception. Having had a fruit salad and some coffee, she climbed the stairs to the third floor and knocked on Phillipa's door. Nobody answered. She then next door to John and knocked again, but nobody opened it. Finally she tried Nimrod's but it remained closed as well. She lowered her head and walked to Aizit's room, where she knocked and waited patiently for him to open. The boy was still in his pyjamas and yawned lazily when he saw her.

"Bloody hell it's eight in the morning! What do you want?"

"Where are the others?", she asked, a bad feeling emerging from inside her.

"I don't have a bloody clue. Goodnight," he slammed the door on her face. She sighed and returned to her own room to pack her stuff. She couldn't remember exactly what she had done last night, but she knew it was something stupid that involved alcohol.

"Nice. Sechrazat verses the Ifrit," she turned towards the small black scorpion which was now crawling on the table next to her hand. "Guess you never thought that would happen. You pathetic little fool, your stupid greed got us in this in the first place," she pushed the insect away with her finger, and it landed on the other edge of the table. Right then her doorbell rang, followed by three desperate knocks. She hurried to the door and opened it to find Harry Groanin standing opposite her, his face pale and his only hand shaking.

"Groanin? What's going on?"

"The master...the kids...some men came..." his voice was shaking as well. The woman raised a brow. "You have to find them, I say you MUST find them!"

Sechrazat cursed something in Arabic and returned to the room to pick up the small insect from the table and tie its tail to her necklace. Then she took her coat from a nearby chair and hurried to close the door behind her.

"Where did you last see them?" she asked as both of them were quickly walking to the elevator.

"We were ready to leave, returning the room key to the reception, when a man sneaked up behind me and said we must follow him in silence. There came other men too, and they had guns. They took Nimrod and the twins out of the hotel and into a car, but they didn't take me. One of them said I'm dead if I tell anyone and..."

"How did they look like?" she interrupted him, pressing the elevator button.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, djinn or mundanes?"

"Oh I don't know...I didn't see their faces and..."

"Did any of them touch you?"

"One, yes."

"Did it burn?" they reached the reception floor and hurried to the door. The receptionist was busy on the phone and didn't notice them.

"Well, it did feel a bit warm..."

"Djinn," she turned around and put her hand on his shoulder. "Look, I have to go somewhere. But it's dangerous, and you can't come. It's..." he hushed her putting his palm on her mouth.

"Mrs Sechrett, Mr Nimrod is my master. I've been serving him for years. And those kids I love more than anything in the world. So, please, don't speak to me of danger. I've served him through the best and worst, and I won't stop now." He removed his hand and watched her stare at him, her mouth slightly open. She nodded.

"Just don't do anything stupid."


	12. Kashmir

Chapter 10; shaitan shaitan

''You actually live here?" Mr Groanin asked the huge man walking next to him. Actually the term man would be awfully misused to describe the big muscles that covered Hashan's hairless body, from his enormous toes, to his bold head. Like Sechrazat, the djinn's eyes had a bright yellow color, mixed with some hazel strokes. He nodded, turning his head indwardly to look at Groanin, the same way a tiger looks down at a mouse.

"It's not as bad as it looks. That is of course, if you're not allergic to dust and cockroaches." The two of them were talking about the wooden hut a few miles behind them. It seemed ready to collapse and some pieces of driftwood had been set up to support the roof made of hay. Harry Groanin, born and raised an Englishman, could barely stand the sight of this horrible building, less than five meters told, and built to store farming products, especially when he knew people, even djinn people, had to live in there. The two of them, Groanin and Hashan, were followed by another four men, some of them shorter, some of them weaker, but all of them Shaitan. Sechrazat walked next to Groanin and softly grabbed his wrist, pulling him aside of the marching men.

"What are you doing?" She whispered, "I though we agreed you'd keep your mouth shut!"

"I'm just making harmless conversation," was the butler's justify. The woman sighed.

"Fine. Just try not to look into their eyes too much. The fact they're my friends doesn't mean you can trust them." She advised him and walked away to be first in line. They soon reached the mini-van, where they all embarked, six men on the back seats, Groanin driving and Sechrazat next to him. They took the men back inside the town, because the hut was located far outside Thebes and got off the van outside the library. "Describe the men that came," Sechrazat told Groanin, in front of the rest of their team. Groanin did as he was told. "Describe the car," she next. Groanin said it was black and big. The kidnappers had made sure he wouldn't see the license plate, which made it kind of hard for the men to locate it around town, while they were searching in the form of eagles. After about an hour and a half, one eagle returned to the back of the library building, where Groanin and Sechrazat where waiting, and the djinn inside it slipped back into its normal body. It was Short-Head Tom, named after his small head, which was totally mismatched with a long skinny body.

"We know the place," he said before hurrying to the mini-van to take the butler and archaeologist with him to the dark alleys that were the slums of Thebes. He parked the van outside a sex shop. Groanin saw the rest of the men waiting outside, some gazing behind the glass, at the hot female underwear on display. Sechrazat rolled her eyes and slapped Benny Ben's -his original name, Benjamin, was nothing but ironic, because he huge, but not like Hashan; he was full of fat- neck, bringing him back to reality from his daydreaming about hot girls in those underwear. Teardrop, a shady tall man Groanin disliked from the first minute they met, took out a pocket knife and walked to the store's looked door, dragging his feet as he always did. He used the knife to unlock the door, as easily as if he had the actual key. The door opened but someone crashed the alarm system before it could ring. The seven walked in, careful to make no sound. Ben was the first to make it to the stairs, and gestured the others to follow.

The room was illuminated by a soft red light, which granted the shady human-like display dolls a creepy elegance, in their sensual brahs and thogs. Groanin would occasionally feel the neck on the back of his head rise and he almost jumped up when a noise from outside was heard. He turned around to bump on Hashan. The enormous djinn reassured him it was just a cat, knocking down a trashcan. The bunch climbed the creeking stairs to the attic -where forgotten or broken display dolls were placed, along with a collection of ancient porn movies, nobody felt aroused to watch anymore. Groanin meant to say something but was abruptly hushed by a shadow, bypassing them only to be followed by several others. The men, realizing they were surrounded, moved closer to each other, forming a protecting circle and squeezing a horrified Groanin in the middle. The tall djinn, that was Sechrazat, was standing in front of the circular shield and opposite the dark shadow, that now -shed with the low red light- seemed to belong to a male. She groaned and leaned her head to the side, like a dog does when it cannot understand the command you're giving it. The man in darkness now took a few step forward, not too close to the evil djinn and the butler, but just in the right place where light could scare away the shades on his face. The first thing they all noticed, was his green eyes. He was definitely mundane, as most of the djinn in the room felt a cold breeze coming from his direction. Groanin stood open mouthed, with a horrible feeling inside his chest.

"You're the man from the lake! That...Kashmir who greeted me!", Groanin said, feeling stupid he'd been so naive he let that weird man near him.

"And you told us nothing", Sechrazat stated, noticing the man opposite her was smiling. She looked him right in the eye. There was no point trying to perform a Snake Eye, because something in the room was making it colder than she was used to, and such a technique demanded hot atmospheres and mundanes stupid enough to let her look them in the eye for a minute, without looking away. But Kashmir, even though human, seemed to be well-versed in the ways of djinn, thus had made sure the room was too cold for them to use full-power attacks. Shaitan's native environment is the desert, so they can stand low temperatures, but are susceptible to ice and water. Another thing they often do is move in teams. Teams that form little circles and get hold of each others palms just before the attack. And that's exactly what Groanin noticed the djinn around him do. To the eye of any mundane, it might look ridiculous for these filthy, ugly, or huge in Hashan's case, men to stand in a circle and hold hands like little girls playing. But any djinn would know better than to remain and gaze dismissively at this shielding chain, which was now beginning to absorb the remaining heat, and give off an even bigger amount, as the men closed their eyes and gathered their power all together, a mass of fire ready to crash on Kashmir's men who had now surround the djinn and were ready to attack them, smiling a smile of thriump as they thought it would be something easy. What followed was beyong any imagination. A really big blue flash blinded the eyes of Kashmir, only to be followed by a deafening 'bang', because those are likely side effects of djinn power, when it's used by angry djinn. When Groanin opened his eyes again, the room was full of smoke, as all of Kashmir's men where nowhere to be seen. Actually they were somewhere, just it took a little time for Groanin to understand; they had turned them into display dolls. Not the dusty broken ones that resided most of the room, but beautiful, shiny ones, brand new he could think. Hashan and Teardrop walked to the fallen man -Kashmir- and picked him up by his arms, holding his head up so that he could look right in the eyes of Sechrazat who was standing above him.

"Who sent you?" She calmly asked. The man coughed, because smoke still occupied most of the room.

"I...blis..." he said, his eyes half closed.

"Why did he cancel the deal?" She continued in the same calm tone, but the man was starting to panic. There was a pause of silence and Sechrazat sighed. "Don't make me repeat it." She warned him. Kashmir seemed to shiver for a minute, then looked down.

"Someone told him you were trying to fool him," he said looking away. But Sechrazat wanted more, so she nodded and with that Teardrop broke the man's ribs with a kick. Kashmir screamed. "On the train!" He yelled, "Someone was eavesdropping your talk with that woman...Iblis knows everything...he wants the scorpion..." the man's voice became huskier as pain was overpowering him. Sechrazat wrapped her fingers protectively around the insect tied to her necklace. The scorpion wrapped its tail around her middle finger, welcoming her touch. She cursed something in Arabic, then looked back at Groanin. He seemed both puzzled and worried. She sighed and turned her merciless glare at Kashmir.

"Where are the twins?" She asked, in the manner of someone who didn't want to show they were desperate for the answer. Kashmir gestured with his head towards a counter behind some dolls. On it, two porn movie cases stood out because of their bright colors. The woman neared them and opened them carefully. The smoke of John and Phillipa filled the room. The twins wore a terrified and worried expression. Phillipa looked around and hugged Sechrazat when she saw her. The woman was stunned by this sudden move, but welcomed the girl placing an arm around her. "Are you alright?" She asked. The children nodded and ran towards Mr Groanin, to whom color had returned upon his face. Right then Sechrazat realized something was missing. Nimrod. She looked around the counter, opened some more movies that looked more modest, and even tried some old ones, but he was nowhere to be found. After a while John, who had regained his consience, spoke.

"He's not here. They put him in a bottle..." the woman turned around to look at Kashmir, whom Hashan and Teardrop had let fall on the ground. She gestured with her head for them to pick him up again. Phillipa looked suspiciously at the men around her. Groanin reassured her they were friends and they both turned their eyes at what was about to be the one of the most horrible things they'd ever witness. The men picked Kashmir up and held his head up, to face the woman, and his eyelids wide open, strong fingers forcing him to look only in the eyes of the lady above him. She snapped her fingers and the room was suddenly hotter. Her pupils got as thin as a cat's as she said;

"Where is he?" The man tried to resist, which was what made the whole scene horrible. He struggled to look away but it seemed her murderous glare had something intoxicating, it directly accessed his unconscious and started to dig around some of his most horrible memories. He screamed, he cried, his face had the expression of ultimate fear, but he continued to resist. Practically a Snake's Eye is more of an effect than an actual attack. Djinn stopped practising it because it became useless among them. The yellow eyes and dark circles, caused by the continuous excercise of the pupils, would betray the one's capable of performing it. The way it's done, a Snake Eye is the taking over of one's unconscious and searching for the information needed. It was useful against mundane, but most djinn knew how to resist; they thought of a childhood memory. Memories of childhood are stored inside the unconscious. By bringing them up, they occupy their brain, blocking the entrance of another djinn in this part. However, poor Kashmir knew none of that. He started to scream various things that made no sense; he was trying to talk but couldn't. Teardrop shoved a knife between his broken ribs, to break his resistance. The man let another banshee and was ready to collapse by the time the woman blinked and gestured the men to let him go. Kashmir landed unconscious on the ground. Sechrazat walked towards the twins, who were as horrified as their uncle's butler. She carefully took John's palm.

"AZIMUT," she said and a pen appeared between her long fingers. She wrote something on the boy's palm with it. "Your uncle is here, in a perfume bottle. You must go now. And be careful," and with that she walked away, the men following her. For a minute Phillipa thought she'd call her back, they needed her help after all. But the incident that had just taken place in front of their very eyes silenced the girl. For a moment the three of them stood in silence.

"I guess we'd better go find Nimrod now," Mr Groanin breathed.


	13. ES3: Mama

ES3: Mama

**So here's another extra scene, small and bad-written, but probably the best I could do on my ipad. Sorry the updates came later than promised and I'll try to keep up from now on. **

**A very big thankyou to Blackdahlia666 for her support.**

**So how do you like the story so far? love it, hate it? I can never know without a review guys, so give me one! I'd really like to know what's on your mind =]**

**Enjoy the story,**

**Yours,**

**Nameless**

There was a tall woman sitting by the river bank. Flora was surrounding her. A butterfly flew on her palm and sat comofortably on her soft skin. She smiled a beautiful smile. The woman was dark-skinned and one could tell she was Indian from her characteristics. She turned her head around, putting her weight on her shoulder and watched as a young child -a girl- ran through the valley that laid behind her. The child playfully jumped down and rolled down a small hill to find herself in the woman's lap.

"How many times have I told you not to do that?" The woman gave the girl a stern look. The younger shrugged and looked away only to draw a huge smile upon the older's face. "I don't want you to break anything up there," the woman continued. The girl rolled her eyes.

"Mother I'm fine! I know what I'm doing!" The girl yelled, folding her arms around her waist. The woman gave her another compassionate smile.

"You're also stubborn. Just like your father." They both looked away inside the river after this last comment. The woman suddenly had a look of guilt, and the child one of bewilderment.

"I thought..." the girl began to say but was interrupted by its mother's palm covering her mouth. In the distance, not very far away from them but not too close, was standing an enormous figure. The woman lost her chocolate color at once.

"Run..." she whispered horrified to her daughter, pushing her behind with her arms. "Run Sechrazat and never, EVER, look back!" She now sounded panicked. The girl stood still, her gaze fixed on the shady figure that was now closing up. Her mother had two tight grasps on her shoulders and was shaking her front and back. Finally the girl turned her shiny green eyes on her mother. "RUN!" The woman now screamed, and Sechrazat turned around and ran with all her power. As she gained distance away from the figure and her desperate mother, she could hear the pleas of the woman for mercy, and a constant "Sechrazat!" now fading as the girl ran inside their home and away from what was about to become her worst nightmare.

Inside the mini-van five men and a woman were driving towards the shadiest alleys of the city Thebes in central Greece. The woman was sitting alone at the back, caressing a black scorpion between her fingers and looking down at it as if her life depended on the pleasure the small animal absorbed from her touch. Hashan, a big man with lots of tatoos on his arms, moved closer to her on the seat.

"Trouble?" He said with his deep voice. The woman looked up and nodded silently. "You don't really want to leave them like that, do you?" The woman looked down and shook her head. "Then don't"


	14. Bad Luck

As soon as Sechrazat left, Groanin and the twins set to find Nimrod, following the adress the woman had wrote on John's palm. Luckily for them, the perfume shop in which their uncle was, wasn't but a few blocks away, so they didn't have to walk too far. However, even this short distance was full of danger for the twins, who hadn't yet recovered from the shock of their abduction, and the one-armed butler rescorting them. Things became uneasy when Mr Groanin started to feel as if they were being watched. In the slums of Thebes, which they were crossing, two children and a one-armed adult sounds like a piece of cake for the murderous thieves that inhabit the area.

"What exactly is azimut?" John asked his sister. Phillipa shrugged.

"I think it has something to do with a compass," she stated, "not that I've heard it before."

They continued to chat as they were walking, quickly but not nervously. Groanin forced them to pick up their pace when he heard some noise from behind them. They hurried out of an alley only to find themselves in a narrow crossroad. Phillipa advised them to chose the wider path and so they did. However, the noise of someone walking behind them was still able to be heard. Suddenly, Mr Groanin sharply turned around and caught something. It took a few seconds for the twins to realize what has just happened. Someone was actually after them but they had got too close and Groanin had managed to catch the man's wrist and twist it around, bringing him to his knees and forcing a loud scream out of his mouth.

"Stop! Please! It's me! Tom!" The man yelled and looked up as Mr Groanin let him go. Phillipa recognised him as one of the men that were with Sechrazat during the horrible torturing of Kashmir. The butler looked at him surprised.

"I thought you were gone," Groanin said.

"I was!" The man said, now somewhat exasperated, "until she told me to come back and follow you guys!" Groanin raised a brow, unsure if he was to believe him. They looked at each other for a moment, until John shrugged and helped the man to his feet. "Thanks..." he whispered and wiped the dust of his too long pants.

"Is she around too?" Groanin asked suspiciously. The man nodded.

"Waiting for you at the shop. But she sent me in case something happened during your getting there," he shrugged, two bony shoulders flying up, "Never know what's on her mind." And with that, and one of Mr Groanin's infamous groans, they were off.

Reaching the shop, John realized finding Nimrod would be much harder than they thoyght. It was an antique perfume shop with more than two hundred different bottles, and even more of them in the storehouse below the wooden floor. Sechrazat was sitting at the doorway, fiddling the scorpion around her fingers. Phillipa frowned when she saw her. The fact the evil djinn had chosen to help them didn't make any difference to what she had thought a few minutes ago, when she saw her torture that poor man to death. However, something inside her felt warmer when she saw the woman get up and smile; it was this sense of safety Phillipa had around her, simillar to the one she felt around Nimrod or her mother.

"It's nice to know you made it," she stated and neared them. A shadow stood on her face for a while, when she noticed the look on Groanin's face. But it'd take much more than a stern look of disapproval to discourage her. "Look, I'm only here to help. There are hundreds of bottles in there and you'll have to search through them all. Now don't tell me you can do it all by yourselves!" She looked back at the men who got off the mini-van behind her. "Plus, if I hadn't pierced the mind of this guy, you'd probably never see your dear uncle again," she threw an arrogant look. The worst part of what she had just said, was she was right. She had just point out what the three of them had been unconciously thinking. Groanin sighed and entered the shop, followed by the children and woman.

Inside, the shop was a wooden paradise for every perfume lover. There were bottles of every size, shape and color, stored on countless shelves across infinite corridors. An old man was sitting behind a counter, sketching something on a block. He seemed so focused on what he was doing, that he didn't even notice the visitors, until Sechrazat coughed to indicate their presence. He looked up with a pair of shiny blue eyes behind an old pair of glasses.

"Hello," the woman reluctantly said, "um...can we have a look around?"

The man nodded but spoke nothing. Soon they found themselves opening each and every bottle in the shop, in search of the one that contained Nimrod. Hashan and his men would gradually sneak inside the deaf man's shop. Unfortunately, despite having searched most of the corridors, the bottle with the djinn was nowhere to be found.

"This is pointless," John breathed, opening another bottle.

"He might be in the store room, downstairs," Phillipa thought aloud. The two of them were searching the opposite sides of the same corridor.

"I've seen where the entrance is," Benny spoke from next corridor.

"What are we waiting for then?" Teardrop's whisper was heard from somewhere inside the shop. Hashan gestured to Shorthead Tom and Ben to follow him down a narrow stair passage at the back of the shop. The twins continued their search for a while, until the three men came back upstairs and Hashan's deep voice was heard.

"It's pointless," he agreed with John.

"Told you," the boy said to his sister.

"There are trillions of bottles down there...if Godwin is bottled up between them, then we'll have to search for days..." Tom said.

"Not if there's an alternative," Sechrazat was heard from a distant corridor.

"You'll kill this old man too?" Groanin spoke.

"He's not dead, ok?" The way she said it betrayed her guilt, "We can break all the bottles at once. With an earthquake." The twins froze.

"You'll destroy this old man's shop?" John said, "I mean, look at him, it's probably the only thing he has." Sechrazat looked at the man, even though John didn't see her do it. She sighed.

"He'll be fine...We'll make him win the lottery," she reassured the boy.

"Nimrod might get hurt if you break the bottle...It happened to Buck's grandmother once..." Phillipa said, and bit her lower lip for remembering something Buck had said. Sechrazat rolled her eyes.

"Well I don't know who Buck is, and I don't care what happened to his granmother. All I know is the only way to get your uncle back is to break these bottles all at once. And a small earthquake would do the job," she waited for their response. When she had made sure there was nothing to argue about, she yelled her focus word.

"AZIMUT!"

After a silenced moment or two, the shelves started to shake, along with the lamps hanging from the ceiling. A few bottles dropped and then more and more, until the whole store was shaking, and glasses could be heard shattering everywhere. The old man jumped up and made a weird noise to get his customer's attention. They all ran out of the building, pretending to be as horryfied as he was. Finally, and having broken everything inside the store, the earthquake stopped. While everyone expected to see Nimrod walking out of the store with dust on his red suit, no one came. Phillipa had a very bad feeling which worsened when they got back inside the store and saw no one standing between the shatered glasses and broken shelves. Hashan even checked the store room, but no one was there. Before they left, Sechrazat left a lottery ticket on the man's desk.

"So now what?" John asked once they were out. Phillipa looked as if she was going to burst in tears. Sechrazat brushed her fingers through her bangs.

"Maybe someone sold him," Shorthead Tom spoke from behind them.

"But how will we know?" John asked. "There don't seem to be street cameras or something around here...probably it's only weird old people and cats." He breathed. From beside him, Phillipa watched a black cat sit on a nearby trashcan, watching them carefully. She then had an idea.

"That's it John!" She exclaimed, "The cats!" She pointed behind her and everyone turned to look at the creature, even though most of them didn't get the girl's point. Phillipa sighed. "This cat has probably been here for hours! She could have seen what happened to Nimrod's bottle!"

"But we don't know what the bottle is like," John raised a brow.

"We don't," Phillipa now turned towards the tall woman, still gazing at the cat. Sechrazat noticed her moving, and turned her yellowish eyes towards the girl, "But she does." The woman sighed.

"Seems I've forgot the description..." she noticed everyone either rolling their eyes or looking away disappointed, "But, I'll know when I see it." This last comment somehow restored their hope.

"So you just have to read this cat's mind," John said. Sechrazat bit her tongue at the term "read the mind". Only angels had the ability to read minds, not djinn or mundanes. And reading one's mind was definitely miles away from what a Snake Eye was. She decided to skip insulting the boy and explained softly that her technique doesn't work with animals. Phillipa wiped a tear of despair, which was on its way down her cheek, realizing they had probably reached a dead end. The solution, however, came from the most unlikely to provide one; Teardrop, who was leaning against the wall behind them, staring at the cat.

"What if one gets inside that cat, get hold of its mind, and then Sechrett can do the Eye on them," he said, with his husky, deep voice. Hashan, who was standing next to him was the next to speak.

"I'm not very good with animals. Especially cats."

"Me neither," agreed Ben and Tom nodded to show he was of the same opinion. Every gaze turned to Teardrop.

"Hey don't look at me! I already did my part!" He complained.

"Phillipa," John called his sister, "You've done it before. Why don't you try again?" Phillipa gave him a nasty look.

"It's not warm enough here, John!" She said. Sechrazat stepped in, softly placing her palm on the girl's shoulder as she spoke.

"That's not going to be a problem. Not with us around," she gestured to the men behind her. At once they all stepped closer to the girl, holding hands all together. Sechrazat took hold of Hashan's hand and they all formed a circle. She extended her open palm for Phillipa to hold. The girl looked back at her brother hesitantly. John shrugged. Phillipa looked back at the djinn circle. For a very peculiar reason, she felt the urge to join them, which was because of the heat they gave off. She reluctantly slid her fingers across Sechrazat's palm. It felt burning hot, not that Phillipa would mind. Once their fingers were locked together, the djinn girl felt a rush of power inside her. It was the overwelming feeling of having endless power, one of five mature djinn. She felt like she could do anything. Of course, Sechrazat hadn't predicted the impact such power would have on young and inexperienced Phillipa, who took possesion of the cat's body within seconds. Before anyone could realize what had happened, Phillipa was back, now carrying the cat's memories with her. The djinn let go of each other and the tall, caramel-skinned woman leaned a bit forward, looking the girl directly in the eye. Phillipa felt hot air wipe her face, as the astral body of Sechrazat took hold of hers. But before she could know what was happening, the woman was back out of her, and blinked silently.

"So," John impatiently asked, "what did you see?"

"No one bought it," she shook her head as she spoke, "At least no one the cat saw." Phillipa sighed.

"Poor uncle Nimrod..." another tear ran down her cheek. Groanin noticed and wiped it with a clean hankerchief he had been keeping in his pocket.

"You don't have to get upset, Miss Gaunt," he said, and John was surprised to hear some hope in his voice, "We'll find master Nimrod, whatever it takes."

Hashan nodded.

"Maybe that guy...Kashmir, knows more," he said, scratching his chin.

"I called an ambulance to come pick him up," Tom said, and the twins found themselves surprised that an evil djinn had cared for a mundane, "He should be in the nearest hospital by now," he concluded. Ben shrugged.

"So what the bloody hell are we waiting for?"


	15. Three wishes and a cold

The nearest hospital turned out to be more than a hundred and twenty kilometers away, in the capital city of Greece, Athens. Before they left, Sechrazat called Aizit, who was in their hotel all that time, and arranged to come pick him up. John explained the story to him and Aizit, who had spent most of the day sleeping and didn't have a clue about what happened to the twins, regarded him with disbelief. The nine of them had a little trouble getting to Athens because the mini-van was too small for nine people, especially if the enormous Hashan and Ben were included, plus, without Mr Rakshasas and his knowledge of Greek, no one could read the road signs, which in this rural area had no English translation on them. Having got lost a few dozen times, Sechrazat, who had the tendency to get impatient, stepped out of the car and created a whirlwind. Despite the fact the air up on the whirlwind was frozen cold, Sechrazat took them to Athens in less than an hour and seemed to be totally unaffected, unlike the twins, who had lost their power due to the low temperature.

Finally they arrived a little outside the city. They didn't want to go too close to the hospital, as it was surrounded by tall buildings and it was high likely some one would notice the nine people sitting crossleged on thin air. So, Sechrazat steered the whirlwind towards the suburbs of Athens and landed there, a few miles away from the hospital. However, there remained one problem; it was dark, and they were too tired to walk all the way to the hospital, which, by the way, was probably closed for the night. The situation became even worse, when the woman among them started to cough. Mr Groanin was the first to comment she'd probably caught a cold from the freezing air up on the whirlwind. Sechrazat rolled her eyes and shrugged, wearing a frown.

"Whatever this stupid thing is," she said "we don't have time for it now!" And with that they were off to find the hospital.

Athens Metropolitan was a huge glass building with more than two hundred patient rooms and an enormous amount of emergency beds, able to provide the most high-quality hospital machinery. Or at least it would be, suppose the staff knew how to handle them. However, for people like Hashan, who disliked hospitals as much as the North Pole, the enormous Metropolitan was a nightmare. And this was the justify he used to keep himself and his three men away from the white aprons of the doctors and nurses. As for Mr Groanin, nobody asked if he wanted to come inside the building, for obvious reasons. Hospitals are, in his words, the best place to pick up a nasty disease. Before they walked in, Sechrazat halted the marching twins, placing an open palm on John's chest.

"Are you two good actors?" She asked. Phillipa raised a brow and her brother shrugged.

"We've never really been on stage before..." he said.

"What I meant was...do you know how to pretend? To lie? To act?" She said these last three words as if she was describing the most fine of arts. John shrugged again.

"We lie if we have to," he rushed to say but Phillipa stopped him.

"John! Don't you see where this is going? She wants to use us as a cover to get in and torture that poor man!" Sechrazat rolled her eyes.

"Hey, this poor man trapped you inside a porn movie case! Would you prefer me to have let you in there?" She exclaimed.

"I didn't know you were our bodyguard," Phillipa said, sort of sarcastically. John leaned his head to the side and watched thoroughly, because he wasn't used to his sister using sarcasm.

"Do you want to save your uncle or not?" the woman crossed her arms around her torso. Phillipa sighed and took some stray hair away from her face.

"What do we have to do?" she asked.

"Cry," Sechrazat smiled and continued while leading them inside the hospital, "Cry as if the most horrible thing has happened to you," she coughed again, then cleared her throat.

From the inside, the hospital seemed even more vast, the patients countless, the nurses walking up and down chaotic, the noise gave Phillipa nausea, and the crowd made John dizzy. They neared a circular counter in the center of the room, behind which three women in the classic white nurse apron were running around the counter, struggling to pick up the ringing phones and serve the waiting customers at the same time. The waiting line wasn't a big one, two or three people, but the counter was full of paperwork which had to be sorted out to become useful in any way. Sechrazat gave the queue a dismissive look, then folded one arm around her, rested her elbow on it and wrapped a finger around her lower jaw.

"What is it?" John asked, noticing the woman who seemed to be thinking something through.

"I'm indecisive," she replied within a sigh, "Turn them into grasshoppers...or flies?" It was the fact she seemed to be totally serious about this that mostly scared him. Phillipa gave her a stern look.

"You won't turn them into anything," she dissed the woman, "We'll just wait."

And waiting they did, as Sechrazat suddenly felt too tired to talk back to Phillipa. She actually felt too tired to use djinn power and turn the waiting line into flies, for she had decided flies would be more of a catastrophe for the hospital, their dirty legs intoxicating the syringes of the patients. When they found themselves second in line, Sechrazat nudged Phillipa who looked up at her. The woman blinked, but Phillipa didn't get the hint. The older djinn brought her fists up to her face and rubbed them up and down, right below her eyes, on her cheekbone. Phillipa made a low "ah" and tried to think of the most horrible thing that could ever happen to her. _"Think, Phil!" _she thought. For a moment nothing came to mind. But then, as one of the hospital's doctors walked into the room calling the relatives of some Mr. Rupid to come to him, she thought of her own family, her mother, Ayesha and the horrible things that had happened to her when her grandmother kidnapped her. At the very same minute she felt a warm liquid running down her cheek and looked up at the smiling Sechrazat, a view blurry because of her watery eyes. It took John a while to realize what was happening and, instead of consoling his sister, he started to cry as well. Soon the two children would sob and blow their noses, while Sechrazat was practicing the most worried and anxious look she could fake. It was their turn in line and they came face to face with a neurotic obese lady whose look made the fact she was unwilling to help them obvious.

"What do you want?" she barked. Sechrazat hesitated for a moment, not because she was discouraged by the aggressive nurse, but because she knew turning her into a rabbit would only make things worse.

"I'm looking for...a..." she panicked as she couldn't remember the name of the so-called assasin, "Kashmir. Kashmir Atay," she had learned his surname while scanning his mind through Snake Eye. The nurse rolled her eyes and looked down at some papers, "He just came in," Sechrazat continued, "He's...my hus-" sob "-band," she wiped a fake tear off her cheek. The nurse sighed in exasperation and wrote something on a sheet of paper.

"Room 321. Here," she handed Sechrazat the paper, "Your visitor pass. Ne-"

"Wait!" Sechrazat softly placed her fingers on the nurse's arm, "What about my children?" The fat woman looked down behind the counter and noticed the two crying children.

"They don't look like you," the nurse said, raising a brow. Sechrazat bit her lower lip.

"Is that a problem?" she said, her pupils getting smaller. The look on the nurse's face changed. She shook her head.

"No," she signed two more visitor passes for the children. "Next!"

The three of them used the stairs to get to room 321, a small one located in the far west end of the third floor. A nurse walked outside of the room, carrying a tray. Sechrazat smiled as she opened the door and walked in.

"Um, madam?" the nurse spoke and Phillipa froze before she had a chance to walk inside. Sechrazat turned around, smiling patiently.

"Yes?"

"May I check your passes?" The woman handed the nurse her pass and gestured for the kids to do the same. The nurse threw a quick glance and nodded, then left. Finally, the kids walked inside the room. It was a typical hospital room, the furniture consisted of a bed and various medical equipment. On the bed laid Kashmir, his eyes wide open in a horror-like expression, and his lips as pale as his complexion. John was the first to near him.

"He seems to be...unconscious..." he said and looked back at the girl and woman who were now slowly walking toward him.

"If you think we'll fall for that, Kashmir, you can light my lamp," Sechrazat said and pushed his shoulder to the side, causing a moan to escape the man's lips. He blinked and turned his swollen eyes to the woman.

"You back to torture me more?" Sechrazat rolled her eyes.

"And you've no idea what I'll do to you if you don't tell me where Godwin is," she widened her eyes. Kashmir looked away. Sechrazat was ready to punish him, when Phillipa softly nudged her. She turned around.

"Instead of threatening him," the girl said, "you could try to bribe him," she said. "It sometimes works better with hum...mundanes." Sechrazat sighed.

"Alright," she said and looked down at the scorpion who slowly crawled upwards on her chest. She turned towards Kashmir, "Tell me where Godwin is, and I'll heal you," she said. But Kashmir didn't seem convinced at all.

"Say, I understand djinn have a more...traditional way to reward humans. Now we wouldn't want to break this tradition, would we?" he said. Sechrazat began to say something that was lost inside a cough. Then, she tried to speak again.

"If you hope to get three wishes, you pathetic excuse for an assassin, you keep hoping," she said. But John's stern glare made her change the tone of her voice when she spoke again, "However, if you want it so badly, you don't have to do more than simply wish for it..." Phillipa couldn't help it but think of the way Iblis spoke, for the two evil djinn obviously shared the same thoughts regarding mundanes. Kashmir nodded.

"I wish I had three wishes..." The woman snapped her fingers.

"That was wish number one."

"But..."

"There's no but, that's how we work. Now name the second, before I change my mind," she smiled triumphantly. Kashmir groaned.

"Very well. I wish the wound from the stab your friend gave me would heal immediately."

She smiled. "You thank God you used the word immediately," she said and snapped her fingers again. He was ready to go on, when she hushed him. "Before you make the last one, tell me what you did to Godwin."

"We bottled him up, then gave him to Jack Patterson, an old man who owns an antique perfume shop, which you probably have visited already," he stared to speak. Phillipa's eyes suddenly widened.

"But the bottle wasn't there..." Sechrazat began to say but was interrupted by the girl.

"Of course it wasn't!" Phillipa exclaimed, "Stupid me, I should have thought of it before..."

"Thought of what?" John asked.

"It was a trap!" Sechrazat raised a brow as the girl spoke, "The shop was so big it would take a lot of time to search it...enough time for them to take the bottle away..."

"But how come the cat didn't see anything?" John asked.

"We never took the bottle to the shop, " Kashmir interrupted, "It's already traveling to Rhodes, an island near Turkey, in the Aegean," he said. Sechrazat sighed.

"Great. More travel," she turned around and began to walk towards the door, followed by the twins.

"Wait! What about me?" Kashmir yelled.

"Oh, yes," Sechrazat said, "You have one more wish, which I suppose has to do with...money."

"You suppose right. I wish I had seven billion American dollars!" Sechrazat rolled her eyes. This one, to her displeasure, was smart. She rarely fulfilled wishes for mundanes, because most of the time she was busy trying to get rid of the scorpion which now crawled around her long neck, but even when she did she would always try to fool them somehow, take advantage of every detail to turn their own wish against them. Once, she remembered, a child that had let her out of an Asian jar her father had bottled her in, wished for a pet. Sechrazat could still remember the look on his face when she made an elephant appear in the kid's backyard. She smiled only at the thought, then snapped back to reality and fulfilled Kashmir's last wish. However, as soon as she spoke her focus word and the money were inputted in Kashmir's bank account, she felt weak. Weaker than ever actually. Definitely not strong enough to create a whirlwind to Rhodes.


	16. Soul Mirror

**Hey guys! I know it's been a while, and I should probably update more often. Well, school is about to start and I don't know how much free time I'll have to write from now on. However, I promise to finish the story and, why not, even write a sequel. I'm happy to say this story has reached its peek, you know, the part where the mystery unravels. I like to think of it as a video-game, where you go through all the different stages and finally face the Big Boss. There aren't many chapters left, so I'd like to say a big thank you to all of you who sent messages or have submitted a review. Encouragement is very important for me, so THANK YOU! Hope you enjoy your reading =)**

**XO**

**Nameless**

As soon as the three of them, the twins and woman, got out of the hospital, Sechrazat knew that there was no way she could fly a whirlwind. The men waiting outside were anxious to know what happened, and, as soon as John told them, Hashan offered to fly the whirlwind himself. He received a big thank you from the children and a happy nod from Sechrazat. Once up on the whirlwind, Phillipa had the chance to ask the woman about something she'd been wondering since Kashmir told them the truth about their uncle.

"How come your Snake Eye was mistaken?" she asked. Sechrazat, who was sitting cross-legged next to her and looking away, turned her head inwardly to face her.

"It wasn't," she then returned to her previous thoughts. But Phillipa hadn't got her curiosity quenched yet.

"But you said Nimrod was at the perfume store, while he was being transferred to Rhodes!" The woman shook her head.

"This guy was very smart. A genius indeed. No wonder Ib..." she bit her tongue.

"...No wonder Ib?" Phillipa repeated. Sechrazat sighed and looked down at her feet.

"Just let it go, Phillipa." The girl remembered the saying "curiosity killed the cat" and looked away at her brother, who was chatting with Shorthead Tom.

"For bad guys, you're not very bad, you know," she spoke to the woman. Sechrazat bit her tongue and closed her eyes, squeezing her fists.

"You really don't know when to shut up, do you?" she dissed the girl. Phillipa, obviously offended, moved away from her and closer to John and Tom.

They reached Rhodes in less than an hour and landed near a cliff, a little outside the town of Rhodes. The cold temperature had got Sechrazat even worse, she now kept sneezing and coughing. Groanin offered her a handkerchief, which she gladly excepted to clean her running nose. The man, disgusted, told her to keep it. The biggest problem, however, wasn't Sechrazat's cold, but the fact that Rhodes was one of the biggest Greek islands, and they were searching for a tiny bottle. Groanin was the first to notice that among most islands, Rhodes is famous for its vast casino, Casino Rodos, located near the central beach of the town Rhodes. This piece of information was enough to sent a frozen shiver down Sechrazat's spine, as she realized what was going on. Hashan gave her a look of panic, as did the rest of the men. She pursed her lips and looked down, but before she could say anything, a noise was heard from somewhere near them. The look of panic on their faces gave its place to horror, as seven men in black approached them from behind some bushes. Before they could say anything, or run, one of them spoke. He was wearing several golden rings, one of them with a ruby on it.

"Our Master is glad you came. Please, follow us," he gently said, a voice so pleasant, one could hardly suspect what was to come. The twins gave Sechrazat a panicked look. She gave Groanin a glare before walking towards the men. In the darkness, John could sense the man was smiling. The woman turned around and was left staring at the children. Phillipa was the first to get the message and follow her. John, holding his sister's hand, followed as well. The man's smile became even wider as he, his men, and the three djinn, turned around and began to walk away. "Oh, and whoever is stupid enough to follow us," he squeezed his fist, "had better not."

And with that they were off, leaving Groanin and the four Shaitan alone in the darkness of the hill.

Iblis, sat on a velvet couch, opposite the blindfolded twins. Behind him stood a tall, caramel-skinned woman, her head lost in the shadows of the room. The twins barely made any noise, apart from breathing. But even this was enough to abstract Iblis from his thoughts of what horrible thing he could do to them. On a wooden table, between him and the children, was placed a small crystal bottle, once used to store perfume. Perfume bottles are a horrible place to be bottled up in, because of the intoxicating smell of alcohol that can drive one crazy. He left a low sigh and placed his jaw on his fist. A cough broke the silence.

"I'm displeased to say I simply can't think of a fate horrid enough for these despicable twins. Would you mind lending me a hand, Sechrazat?" he spoke without withdrawing his murderous stare from the children. The woman's breath accelerated. After one whole minute of awaiting her answer, Iblis slowly turned his head around to face her. She was looking down, at the floor and pursing her lips. "Cat ate your tongue, Mrs. Sechrett?" She looked away. "Oh, someone is experiencing a little guilt, aren't they?" He rose from the couch where he was sitting and glared at the two men who were guarding the only door in the room. "Would you keep an eye on them for a while?" he asked the guards, "Mrs. Sechrett here has obviously forgotten the manners it took so long for me to teach her," he smiled and walked towards the woman, whose skin had lost its live color to a pale one. Her breathing became even faster when the scent of his perfume reached her nostrils. Iblis violently grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room with him.

Meanwhile, the twins, still alive and conscious, despite Iblis having removed some hair to have them under his binding, were struggling to think of a way out of this trap. Phillipa was feeling as betrayed as ever, because it became obvious to her that Sechrazat had only protected them to bring them safe to Iblis. Yet, she felt disappointed. There was something about this woman, that made her feel there was hope for her. Unlike other evil djinn, there was a spark of virtuosity, even kindness and compassion. No, she definitely was not like the others. Or at least, that's what she'd like to think before they ended up in Iblis' penthouse. John, on the other hand, could sense that Sechrazat was clearly as troubled as they were. The torn piece of sheet covering his eyes was thinner, and he had seen the violent grasp of Iblis, as well as the horrified look in the woman's eyes. Relying on his instincts rather than logic, unlike his sister, John focused on how to get them out of the place, while Phillipa was already thinking of how to act once they were out. They couldn't speak to each other, both of them had heard that guards were inside the room with them. So, in silence, using their special bonding as twins, they tried to share their thoughts, as they had before accidentally done a couple of times.

Meanwhile, outside, Groanin and the four djinn had gathered behind some bushes outside the casino, trying to figure out a way to get in.

"We could climb the side walls into the hotel part of it," Benjy Ben proposed.

"Yeah, like you can climb a wall," Tom teased him, with something that was actually true, considering Ben's weight.

"Stop the nonsense. We have to concentrate," Groanin interrupted them, "I say we all have to concentrate!"

"The guy's right. None of us can climb a wall. Plus, there's security everywhere," Hashan said, "And you can be very sure they'll shoot whatever seems to be not-normal to them," he raised both eyebrows. Of all the men, Hashan was the one who looked more like the typical djinn, a cliche appearance, one golden earring and sharp ears. Groanin thought of the "Genie" in Disney's "Aladdin" , a movie his master had despised from the first minute. Had one known how real djinn look like, "Genie" would have seemed ridiculous to them, too. However, the word not-normal, gave him a brilliant idea.

"That's it...not-normal. They won't any of us get in, because we don't look like clients of the casino. If we want to get in, we have nothing more to do, I say, nothing more to do, than look normal!" The djinn smiled.

"Boy, I wish I were half as smart as you," Tom said. Unfortunately for him, he was surrounded by three mature djinn, which meant his wish was most likely to be fulfilled. However, Groanin was an average man, with average brain. Being half as smart would mean being less smart than the average, something that perfectly described Tom's current state of mind. So, even though the djinn around him, actually his brother, Ben, fulfilled his wish, he kept being as smart as before.

The warehouse room was empty, dusty, and cold. Colder than all the other rooms of the hotel part of the casino, because it was located underground. Iblis shoved the woman against an uncomfortable wooden chair, and walked to the other end of the room. He pushed an object covered in cloth towards her, until it was right in front of her. The woman looked at him.

"Don't do it...please..." she begged but it was too late. Iblis pulled the cloth to unravel nothing but a medium-sized piece of metal; what djinn call a soul mirror. Sechrazat sharply turned her head away, but the Ifrit smiled devilishly and pulled her head back so that she would directly face the mirror. "...Why? Why are you doing this?" He giggled.

"You really thought that fool, Nimrod, could help you," he said, amused. "When will you realize that no one can? Well, no one but I," he laughed, the sound of it penetrating her head. "Why won't you just admit it," he continued, "the only reason why you agreed to do it, is to be closer to me...to us. You like this. It's in your nature."

She felt her insides boiling with anger.

"I'll count to three."

Iblis simply ignored her warning and continued.

"You and I, dear, are not so different."

"One."

"Our only difference is the vulnerability we don't share."

"Two"

"Vulnerable...is one who can easily change their mind when it comes to saving a loved one."

She froze and turned her head toward him, glaring deep inside his eyes.

"What did you do to him?"

Iblis chuckled. A horrible chuckle that sent shivers down her spine.

"For the moment, nothing. But you never know, sweet-pie."

Sechrazat felt her heart racing.

"Monster."

"You love it, don't you?"

Phillipa left a small sigh. She didn't know how much time had gone by, but it felt like hours. Suddenly, a noise was heard from somewhere inside the room. John nudged her softly. Through the thin sheet that covered his eyes, he could see three men, three djinn, fighting the two guards. None of them used a focus word, for mature djinn can sometimes focus their power by thinking of their focus word and not saying it out loud. In this case, Teardrop, Tom and Groanin -with the exception of the last mentioned- were whispering their focus words all the time, but none came to John and Phillipa's ears. After a while, the fight was over, leaving the twins in agony of who was the winner.

Their anxiety could end when the sheets covering their eyes were taken away by Tom and Groanin, whose adrenaline rising had caused sweat to drip off his face. Phillipa smiled a wide smile.

"Mr Groanin! I've never been happier to see you!" she exclaimed and jumped into his arms.

"Thank God you're ok! I've no idea what I would do, had something bad happened to you, I say I've no idea what I'd do if something had happened to you!" he took John in his other arm as well. They shared a moment of hugging, then John spoke first.

"We have to hurry. Iblis took Sechrazat and..."

"You really think we're going to save her?" Phillipa said, ignoring the looks on Teardrop and Ben's faces. "After she betrayed us like that?"

"Betrayed?" John defended the woman, "I believe you misheard the way Iblis spoke to her! It was clear she was a prisoner of his, too! Plus, she protected us and helped us get to Nimrod!"

At this moment, Groanin, who had noticed the crystal bottle on the table, took the liberty of opening it. Smoke started to form, as a djinn was transubstantiating. The smoke formed a body and, within seconds, Nimrod was standing between them. His nephew and niece hurried into his arms, as he held them with affection.

"Oh, dear children! I was beginning to think I'd stay in there forever! You've no idea how horrible the smell of alcohol gets after a while," he complained, sniffing the air. He smiled and turned towards Groanin, "Mr Groanin...I must say I'm happy to see you," Groanin nodded.

"Me too, sir," Groanin smiled. Suddenly, a second cloud of smoke started to form into the room. The looks on the twins' faces changed from happiness to fear. Nimrod hurried to relax them.

"Don't worry, children. It's just Mr Rakshasas. The poor old man takes twice as much time as he used to to transubstantiate," he said with his deep voice and smiled widely as Mr Rakshasas' body formed. Finally, after a minute or so, he too was standing between them.

"I'm afraid this alcohol scent has intoxicated my nostrils," he complained, "I may have to take a rest..."

"It's alright, Mr Rakshasas," John said, "Why don't you stay here with Groanin while we go to find Sechrazat?" Phillipa sighed.

"We won't go, John! We'll just get out of here! She'd do just the same for us, trust me!" she said. John gave Nimrod a look, and he looked down at his niece expectantly.

"I trust you don't mean that, Phillipa," he gently spoke, "You wouldn't like it if she left you there, helpless and hopeless. And an old Greek saying claims that you should never do to others, what you wouldn't want to be done to you," he lowered his head. The girl breathed out and sat on the couch.

"I guess you're right. After all, I would feel very guilty afterward..." She admitted.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Groanin said.

Inside the soul mirror is depicted the soul of every djinn that stands before it. Each has their personal one, and it is a quite unique ability to be able to see inside your soul. However, it's not as fascinating as it sounds for everyone. Some djinn, that belong to the Seventh Tribe of djinn, known as hybrids, come from parents from different sides. For example, one djinn might be the child of a Jann and Ghul. Now, one can imagine how this djinn would feel when it sees both its dark and good side come to light; when it looks inside its soul mirror.

What you see in a soul mirror can, however, change. It changes based on what you want it to be, on how much you help yourself. Some djinn, that are hybrids, chose to be on only one side, thus, try to fight the evil -or good- within them. Some others are made to chose a side, made to be evil or good, by someone else. There are several ways to affect the decision of a hybrid djinn to be either good or evil. One is to talk with them, discuss it, try to reach a logical assumption. Another is to bind them to someone who is already evil, to make them carry evil everyday with them. Bindings that include the use of blood can affect other djinn that are relatives to them. Therefore, if you bind one djinn to be a poisonous arachnid, another relative djinn to it, will become immune to the arachnid's venom.

Iblis knew all of that. It was in the Rules of Baghdad. Mr Rakshasas knew all of that as well. He gave the twins a copy of this section of the book to read. Nimrod knew all of that. He knew many hybrid djinn as well. Sometimes he felt sorry for Dybbuk, the son of Jenny Sachertote, and wished he could help him, even though he couldn't. The four Shaitan men knew all of that, most of them knew, or had read or heard about the story of the infamous King Scorpio. Groanin heard about it while the seven of them were walking around the empty halls of Casino Rodo's hotel. However, none of them was left untouched when they gently opened the door to a warehouse in the underground level.

On a chair, opposite what seemed to be a soul mirror, Sechrazat was crying softly, her shoulders going up and down as she sobbed. On her neck rested the same black scorpion, now bigger than ever. The long fingers of Iblis were firmly holding her lower jaw, making her look straight inside the mirror, as he rested his own jaw on her shoulder and smiled.

"Oh but isn't it beautiful? You can see how the black eats through the white spots...like flesh-eating bacteria...Magnificent!" he'd say and giggle every once in a while. John and Phillipa, behind the door, took a close look at the soul mirror. Iblis was right; there was black, a lot of it, and some white spots here and there, perfectly white, like the ones they'd see in their own soul mirror. There was also some dark red, but most of it was purplish black. The woman didn't speak, she just gazed at the horrible thing before her.

"Let's go," John whispered. Phillipa caught him by the arm.

"No, wait! We need to have a plan!" she said.

"Phillipa's right," Nimrod whispered too. "It's far too dangerous for you, children. I'm afraid you have to be left behind..."

"You can't fight him alone!" John said.

"Well, I hope I won't be left alone..." he said and softly crept inside the room. Phillipa widened her eyes in agony. On the wall above them was a small window. John considered it safer for them to watch through it rather than the door. So, Phillipa climbed on Groanin's shoulders and watched, as Nimrod crept around the shadows of the room, trying to get close enough to use his power against the evil djinn.

"Can you see anything?" John asked.

"I..."

"QWERTYUIOP!"


	17. Cliff Hanger

**I know there has to be an Extra Scene before this chapter, but I simply couldn't hold my horses. I know it's small and probably not quenching ones curiosity, but it's late and my imagination needs a break. I hope you enjoy it, even though it's small and ends kind of sharply.**

Nimrod had to admit he'd never felt his heart racing like that before. As Iblis was slowly closing in, his eyes overwhelmed by fury, the man in red could think of nothing better to do than stay calm and try not to show he was as frightened as ever. Behind them, and opposite the soul mirror, sat Sechrazat Zora Sechrett, a djinn hybrid, and, on her long dark neck was resting the notorious Goliath Sechrett, the King Scorpion and the reason why the two male djinn were about to struggle to death. For a moment there was only silence and the mere sound of Iblis' hot breath. From the tiny window, Phillipa was watching breathless, paying attention to every single detail. Below her, Groanin, her brother and the Shaitans were waiting, their hearts in their mouths as well. Groanin was worried about his master, and their fate, in case he was defeated. John was worried about his uncle and the woman in the room, who was now obviously a victim of Iblis as well. The four Shaitan were worried about the precious necklace on the same woman's neck, their leader and only hope to get rid of the Ifrits on their backs and bring everything back to normal. Then, all of sudden, the silence broke unexpectedly, as air started to whirl around Iblis, picking up its pace as seconds went by.

He started to laugh an evil laughter, his hands wide open as the wind surrounded him and gently picked him up. It wasn't a whirlwind, nor a tornado. It was nothing like that. The air was colored, colored gray with smoke that came out of Iblis' body and soon surrounded the room, creating a thick layer of black dust, which made it impossible for Phillipa to see what was going on.

"QWERTYUIOP!"

An oxygen mask appeared on Nimrod's face, as well as a fire extinguisher. Nimrod pulled the trigger and foam surrounded the edge of the smoking hill-like whirlwind, calming it down and reducing the black ash around them.

"That's all you've got?" He teased, "TETAGRAMMATONITIS!"

The ash turned into sand, which gathered into a hill and finally collapsed on Nimrod, burying him under it. Iblis smiled triumphantly and stopped the whirlwind-like cloud, to get off and slowly walk toward the pile of sand. He used his hands to get some out of the way and was more than surprised to land on glass. Bulletproof plexiglass actually. Nimrod smiled as he crawled out of the comfortable glass box he'd produced to protect himself from the falling sand. Iblis widened his eyes in shock.

"QWERTYUIOP!" Iblis' feet were suddenly surrounded by billions of cockroaches, all crawling up on him. The Ifrit groaned as he tried to get them off. Finally he became so furious, that fire burst out of his mundane body, burning the cockroaches all together at once. Luckily, it gave Nimrod enough time to jump on him and pull a tiny hair out of the djinn's hair. Iblis screamed with fury and pain, shoving him against the wall so hard that Nimrod's palm opened and the hair fell on the floor. He then shoved Nimrod against another wall, a hit that could have broken his backbones, fire still rising from his body. It wouldn't burn or bruise, the fire went out naturally. Nimrod's mind was racing. He didn't want to kill Iblis. Just to trap him inside something. There had to be something inside the room... he threw a terminal, almost begging glance at the woman before the mirror.

"Oh, she won't help you, you fool!" Iblis chuckled, looking deep inside the man's eyes, "she can't, not that she cares to, anyway..." Nimrod spoke nothing and kept gazing, while she kept remembering.

The Big Ben dinged midnight. In her knee-length boots and warm coat, Sechrazat walked through an alley toward the man on its end, her hot breath forming little white clouds in the air.It was mid-winter and London was colder than ever. Definitely not the right place for any djinn to be.

"Why did you want to meet here?" He asked.

"I'm in trouble, you have to help!" She would sound more than just terrified. The man gave her a questioning look.

"What's going on?" He asked worriedly.

"They're after me! He...he destroyed everything...and now they want me...they..." she bursted into tears.

"Wow wow, relax," he hushed her and softly pulled her into his arms. "Who is after you?"

"The Ifrit," she whispered, not taking her head away from his warm chest.

"Why?" She pulled away and withdrew something from her pocket. It was something big and black that very much resembled a...The man backed away, to keep a safe distance away from the scorpion in the woman's hands.

"...you have to help..."

"But...how?"

"What do you mean how? Tell your mother, she's the blue djinn after all!" Sechrazat exclaimed. He shook his head.

"I don't think there's something she could do about it, Sechrazat..."

When a man, or djinn, can sense their end coming, few things come to mind. Memories, unfulfilled wishes, regrets...and Nimrod regretted every word of this sentence. This cold night in London, he had denied to help someone in great need. He could have done something, at least Ayesha could. However, he chose to stay away, to doom this poor girl, a beautiful young woman then, into a life of fear and sorrow. So, it didn't came as a surprise, more like a sudden realization, that she wouldn't help him. He hadn't helped her back then, something he'd spent years feeling guilty about, maybe the reason why he chose to help her now with her quest. But he had played a big part in ruining her life and she wouldn't forgive him. Iblis laughed horribly as a knife appeared on his hand; not one he'd use to kill Nimrod, simply killing him wouldn't make up for all the times he ruined his fun! He just needed some blood to impose a binding on him.

"AZIMUT!"

The ceiling collapsed on Iblis, leaving a vast cloud of dust and broken wood behind. Sechrazat of course, had only removed one tiny bit of wood which was used to support the ceiling, for her power was weakened by the cold, yet strengthened by the fury that would take her over every time she looked inside the mirror. Nimrod smiled and wiped some dust off his shirt.

"Thank you," he said with his deep voice. She began to say something, but started to cough instead. "Are you alright?" he neared her, placing his palm on her shoulder. She moved away.

"Fine. Let's go," she turned around. Nimrod began to follow, when the hair on the back of his neck went up. The wall above the only door out, collapsed on the entrance. Iblis' satanic voice was heard. Phillipa bucked away from the window as dust filled the room once again, and found her buttocks on the ground, as Groanin lost his balance. The two of them shared a nervous look.

"You're not going anywhere."


	18. Escape

"Give him the scorpion!"

Nimrod grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer. The heat emitting from his body helped her recover some of her recently lost power.

"Are you out of your mind?" she screamed. Iblis would create another smoke whirlwind, reducing the visibility in the room. It was exactly what they needed...or so they thought. In the thick layer of smoke, which had expanded out of the warehouse room as well, no one noticed a man grabbing Phillipa's arm and pulling her into the room with him, through a tiny passage below the collapsed wall.

"Sechrazat it's the only way we'll get out of here alive!" Nimrod searched through the smoke for her hand. She did the same.

"You must be..." suddenly the smoke cleared, and behind it appeared Iblis holding the same knife he would before, except this time it was on Phillipa's neck. His other palm was extended, wide open, as if he was expecting to get something.

"The scorpion, please," he teased.

"You..." she began to say but was interrupted.

"Give it," Nimrod commanded. It wasn't a question, or an offer, not even a statement. It was a command. She shook her head. "Give it or you'll have to do with me, as well." he continued.

"But..."

"There's no but, hand it over."

"Listen to him dear," Iblis teased, squeezing the girl so she'd choke.

"Nimrod..."

"JUST HAND IT OVER!" She'd never heard him yell before. He wasn't the kind to. She let out a gasp of shock and fear, then lowered her head and slowly walked a few steps toward Iblis. She reached out to her neck, grabbed the scorpion by the tail, and undid the knot holding it together with the leather necklace. Then, King Scorpio softly landed on the palm of Iblis the Ifrit, who smiled in pleasure.

"Thank you," he sarcastically said -for there was no other way Iblis could have meant a "thank you" to someone. Sechrazat stepped behind and waited. But he didn't let go of the girl. He laughed. "You really thought I'd let her go, didn't you? Ha ha ha! Now way, fools!" Nimrod felt his feet numb. He and the woman shared a worried look.

"AZIMUT!" A blue flash -for Sechrazat used the remains of her power- resorted the blackout that followed. The lights in the room went totally out, and, before he knew, Iblis felt a punch in the stomach. Nimrod caressed his aching hand -he wasn't used to hitting people- and grabbed his niece's arm, leading her out of the room.

"QWERTYUIOP!" The collapsed wall disappeared, and the three of them fell onto a crying John and worried-to-death Groanin. They had been trying to find a way in, from the first minute Phillipa disappeared. Sechrazat took Groanin by the arm -his only one- and pulled alongside her. Together, the nine of them ran around the long corridors of Hotel Rodos, in search of an exit -something really hard to find when all the lights have gone out. With their hands laced, the nine walked across a long corridor, the floor being covered with an also long rug, only to reach a dead-end. In front of them stood a door, wooden and shut. John suddenly felt a drip of water or two land on his hair. Then, another one. Suddenly, it was raining. The lights blinkered and finally lit up. The twins turned around to see Sechrazat hold her head with her eyes shut and groan. She cursed something in Arabic, causing Hashan to giggle. However, his giggles were abruptly stopped by the three figures at the end of the hall; Iblis, and two other men.

"Like a rat in a trap..." The Ifrit mumbled and snapped his fingers. The water momentarily stopped, leaving Sechrazat breathless on her knees. "You thought you could beat me..." he chuckled, "Typical Marid thinking. You really believe you're smarter than everyone else, don't you? Well, here's something for your smartness," the look on his face became despicable, as the floor below their feet started to collapse. John ran to the back of the corridor to avoid falling, but with every step the floor would fall down and disappear. Iblis started to laugh devilishly. Nimrod helped Sechrazat on her feet. When everyone was ready to give up and swallow the bitter truth, Ben and Tom crashed on the door so powerfully, it broke down revealing some stairs. Hashan placed his palm on Nimrod's shoulder.

"Go. We'll take care of that bastard," he said and smiled. Nimrod gave Sechrazat a glare. She nodded bitterly.

"Thank you, gentlemen," he said and took both twins by the hand as he and Groanin started to climb down the stairs. Sechrazat gave the huge man that was Hashan a hug.

"I'll never forget this..." she said and turned around to leave.

As soon as they'd climbed down the stairs, they were relieved to discover that in front of them laid the backdoor exit to the hotel. With Groanin first, in case someone saw them, the five paced quickly to the parking lot and then to the exit.

"Now what?" John asked, but Nimrod raised his hand to show there was no time for answers right now. The ordered a cab, to gain distance away from Iblis and his men. Nimrod told the driver to start driving toward the city. As soon as the cab was off, Sechrazat leaned back on the seat and breathed out anxiously.

"Relax, we're safe now," John reassured her.

"You don't understand," she breathed, "Iblis will come...He'll come for me. Without me, the power of Goliath is useless to him...He has to have a way through..."

"What is, I say, what on earth is the lady mumbling about?" Groanin said.

"So, you and the...scorpion, are connected?" Phillipa asked. Sechrazat closed her eyes shut, her head still pointed upwards.

"He's my father."

The statement left everyone, but Nimrod who was seated next to the cab driver and isolated from the rest of them through the plexiglass that isolated the front from the back seats, was left with their mouth hung open at this last comment. Phillipa first broke the awkward silence that followed.

"How could a scorpion be your father?" Sechrazat sighed.

"He wasn't always like that. Iblis did this to him, the binding. It was blood binding, which means it can affect djinn who share blood with the one binded. As a result, I have become immune to scorpion venom and Ahmed, my half-brother, lost his djinn power."

"But why would Iblis continue to hunt you? I mean, he's done as much damage as possible..." John asked.

"Because he's a coward," her eyes flashed open. "He's afraid that one day I'll find a way to undo the binding...And my father will punish him for good. You see, he's very strong...as a djinn I mean. But he can't use his power now, unless..." she hushed as the cab drove through to the port. Through the side-mirrors of the car, she could clearly see two black Mercedes following them at high speed.


	19. ES4: King Scorpio

"Who the hell do you think you are?"

The enormous dark figure banged its strong fist against the table.

"Marching into my residence, molesting my daughter, challenging me, oh but for Allah's shake, me, to the fullest!"

Iblis the Ifrit crawled out of the shadows in the edge of the vast room. A Persian rug was laid from side to side, and, as blood dripped from the knife Iblis was holding, lost the perfection of white that characterized it.

"And, I shall add, ruining my rug," the enormous man now stood up, standing a little less than seven feet tall, his body covered in thick muscles. Physically, Iblis couldn't face up to his little toe. However, intellectually was a different matter. The Ifrit took a step forward.

"I'm the one you'll soon be begging for mercy..."

Goliath Sechrett looked at him in something that wasn't exactly shock; it was more like evil represented in a frown. His golden eyes shined with fury.

"How dare you..."

Iblis snapped his fingers. Two men appeared from behind him, holding another dark figure. Before he could wonder how the young man managed to secretly enter himself and the men into his well-guarded mansion, Goliath recognized the figure trapped inside the arms of strong men. His only djinn daughter, Sechrazat was struggling to release herself, something purely pointless. Goliath narrowed his eyes, as Iblis raised the knife. It was already dripping with blood, blood from Sechrazat's torn wrist. Tiny quantity, yet enough to engage hers and her father's powers. However, to perform a permanent binding on Goliath, he needed a little more, not of Sechrazat's, but of his blood.

"It's either hers, or yours. You choose," Iblis stated and smiled, politely-like. Goliath groaned and clapped. The temperature in the room rose a bit, but that was it. No djinn power.

"Who are you?" the man said, "Some kind of ambitious tormenter?" Iblis laughed but didn't respond. Goliath received his reaction as a "no". "What do you want?" he continued, not because he cared, but because he needed some time to figure a solution. "My place? My leadership? What?"

"Time won't solve your problem, Shaitan," Iblis chuckled, "For there is only one solution; Give me your blood, or I'll take hers," he pointed the knife toward her wrists. Normally, a threat like that wouldn't have worked against an evil djinn. And it didn't; at least not in the intended way. Iblis knew from himself, that the only reason why Goliath would choose -as he did- to sacrifice himself for his daughter, is because he hoped that someday, somehow, Sechrazat would find a way to free him -of course only because she cared to free herself.

Goliath proceeded a few steps toward him and extended his wrists.

"Make it quick," he said, taking care to sound as proud as he could at his moment. His daughter stared breathless as Iblis softly carved a straight line with the knife and let some blood drip on his own palm. He then took something from out his jacket; a scorpion. The way he held it made it obvious the animal was dead and harmless. But as the Ifrit wiped the blood on its back, the animal seemed to spark brighter. Iblis yelled his focus word and the next moment Goliath Sechrett had become King Scorpio.


	20. Bewildered

Nimrod was seated at the front, next to the cab driver, and was more than just alarmed when Groanin nudged him to alert they were being followed.

"This is ridiculous!" was all he had to say, as he popped his head out of the window to check back, when the two black cars began to close up even more. He was abruptly shoved inside by his butler, who received a look of shock and annoyance, which slowly turned into a pale expression of fear, as two gunshots were heard. "Thank you, Groanin," was all he had to say before he prompted the driver to dodge the cars and drive into an alley.

"You'll pay extra," the Greek driver spoke in poor English. His accent could only upset Nimrod even more. For a minute, their stalkers seemed to have lost them. The alley soon ended and the cab drove inside the third and last Port of Rhodes (which was also the one closer to Turkey and Arabia) However, they were all blinded by the lights of a car which sharply turned around from behind some crates and stopped right in front of them. When their eyes got used to the light -at least as much as they could- they were barely able to make out four dark silhouettes standing around the cab, their arms stretched and pointing at them as they were obviously armed. Deadly silence fell inside the car.

"Open the windows," Sechrazat softly whispered, and gently opened the door, getting out of the car.

"Welly welly well," Iblis mocking voice was heard, "Look who's decided to come out, in order to save their friends..." he paused as if he was puzzled, "I wonder, dear, since when do you have a compassionate side?" he laughed, "Or is it one of the billion masks you wear?" She covered her eyes with her arm and slowly walked toward him. Iblis gestured to one of his men and the car lights went out immediately. Sechrazat removed her hand and faced him.

"Let them go," she pleaded. Iblis raised a brow, "I beg you let them go. I'll stay. I won't fight you, not at all," she extended her open palms, few inches away from his body. "Just let them go, and all this power will be yours..." she glared at the scorpion, whose tail Iblis was holding cautiously. He stared at her, sort of bewildered.

"You mean," he neared her more, "after all these years, all this chasing," his eyes shined, "all this torment...you'd give it up...for a bunch of Marid?" there was some obvious wonder in his voice. Of course, nor did she intent to give it up for the twins and Nimrod, neither did she intent to give it up at all. This port, Sechrazat knew, was the one Captain Sebastian -head of the Desert Rose- would be waiting for them at about 4 am. , after she called him before their departing from Athens on Hashan's whirlwind. Aizit, whom she had prompted not to follow -in case Iblis meant to harm him- would board on the Desert Rose from Piraeus and sail with them until Rhodes, where he'd reunite with his cousin. Of course, the hardest part was to convince Iblis nothing was going on. However, she had her own methods. Year after year, decade after decade, Iblis and Sechrazat had learned to read each other so well, for there is no person you know better, than your nemesis. So she knew exactly what to say...

"Do you want it?" she gestured toward the scorpion, "Or not?" Iblis frowned and softly placed the insect in her open palm. She took it and smiled. Suddenly, his other arm flashed around her neck, pressing so hard it could choke her.

"If this is a trap..." she coughed trying to breathe and shaking her head as much as possible. He smiled and let her go. She lost her balance as he pulled her onto him and violently grabbed her other palm -the one without the scorpion. There was a short silence, before it became obvious he was absorbing power. In fact, he was absorbing so much power, that his eyes soon inherited the golden color of Goliath's, the ability to perform Snake Eye. Sechrazat felt her palm burning and her brain been sliced into pieces. And right then, when she had lost all hope Captain Sebastian would come and save her, a deep voice halted Iblis, who stood in wonder and released his grip slowly.

"QWERTYUIOP!" The crates slid on the Ifrit and his men, one literally collapsed on him. Sechrazat immediately pulled away. The evil djinn's hand was still moving. Right then, a ship horn was heard; a noise so loud and powerful, the earth almost shook below their feet. A ship was approaching the docks; the name Desert Rose was written in bold letters on its side. Sechrazat smiled widely, a smile that changed into a frown when Iblis started to move below the broken crate.

"Run, Nimrod! On the ship!" She yelled. Nimrod opened the cab door to the backseat and the twins and Groanin rushed out. Then he threw some money on the driver through the window. Some men on the ship ran down the stairs to the front, where they threw some ropes and some others started to lower the ship's entrance. Groanin took John who took Phillipa by the hand and they all together started to ran toward Aizit, who was standing on the edge waving at them. Eventually, the butler had to let go and beat up the leftovers of Iblis' men. Nimrod rushed for Sechrazat, whom Iblis had taken a good hold of her foot. He hesitantly wrapped his fingers around her arm and pulled her along with him. However, the minute he turned around, a sudden pain in the neck made him fall to the ground.

"Your kindness is what will bring you to an end, Godwin," Iblis mocked as he stood up on his feet and more violently than ever took hold of the woman's free palm. Power started to pour back into him. "Of course, that is if I don't do it first!" he laughed. Sechrazat shoved herself on him.

"Don't do it," she begged, cuddling on his neck, "Please, Iblis...you don't need to. You're powerful, you're ultimate...he can't stand up to your little toe..." she chuckled, "why bother with him, when you can beat much more powerful, important djinn... maybe the Blue Djinn herself..." Her words were so soothing, so quenching to his greed, that he almost didn't notice her other palm -the one holding King Scorpio- softly placing the insect on his arm. But it became noticeable to him when the scorpion stung him powerfully, dripping poison under his skin. Iblis screamed and dropped to his knees, letting go of the woman and caressing his hurt arm. Sechrazat grabbed the scorpion and backed off. Nimrod stood on his knees, wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tagged her along, toward the halted ship.

"No...don't go...help me...Come back! COME BACK YOU TREACHEROUS SLUT!" His voice became louder and louder, echoed inside their heads as the two djinn embarked on the ship and set sailed to Lebanon, one step closer to the Bottle Of Bones.

Sechrazat stood at the very edge of the ship's deck, staring at Iblis as he crawled to he car, holding his hurt arm in despair. She stared at him and wondered; was it worth it? Iblis was a horrible person, yes, but did he deserve it? Would she ever be able to forgive him? Maybe live in peace, try to avoid him...or did she have to kill him? To hurt him and payback for all the horrible things he'd put her through? Was she after salvation...or revenge? Was she a Marid? Or a Shaitan?

"Mrs. Sechrett?" She turned around to see Captain Sebastian smiling. "Won't you introduce us?" He pointed toward Groanin and the frightened children.


	21. I'm on a boat? I'm on a boat!

**Yay! Nimrod X Sechrazat boat moment! Actually the original story was intended to be an IblisXOC -yeah I know I'm obsessed with Iblis. However, and because my imagination is literally uncontrollable, as the character of Sechrazat started to unravel I thought I'd be too cliche you know, the bad guy and the girl who has an evil father and blah blah blah. Instead, I'm going to turn the story sequel (I've already started it) into an Iblis love story. And yeah if anyone is willing to help come up with a title, I'd really appreciate it. **

**So credit to Hanban915 for the chapter title (your reviews are really inspiring xp) and I hope you enjoy the awkwardness that follows ;)**

**XOXO,**

_**Nameless**_

"Uhum..."

Sechrazat jumped up. She turned around to see Nimrod holding a plate of something that was supposed to be roast lamb. It emitted a horrible smell, something like raw meat, and didn't seem intimidating at all.

"You wouldn't come downstairs so I thought..."

"I'm not hungry," she interrupted him, "But thank you," and smiled. Nimrod insisted, extending the plate.

"The locals said its the best course they have to offer," she nodded bitterly and turned her head away. "And it could be the only thing worth out of this journey..." She sighed and closed her eyes, inhaling the smell of sea.

"There's nothing worth out of this journey," Sechrazat stated and lowered her head, fixing her gaze on some dolphins that danced around the racing ship. Nimrod smiled and gently neared her.

"Don't say that. There's always the experience. At least you don't have to worry you'll end up like those grumpy old ladies who spent all their days wishing they had made the most out of their lives," he reassured her, handing the lamb. She smiled, only at the thought of it and turned to face him and the so-called dinner. Nimrod gazed at her expectantly as she took the plate from his fingers and, careful not to spill any on her shirt, took a lamb bite. For a minute she chewed and chewed on and on. Then, she hastily turned around and spit in the water. Nimrod laughed. "How's the taste?"

"Wew...It tastes like sweat!" He laughed even more as she continued to spit and lick the inside of her mouth. "If that's the best they serve here, imagine how the worse would be!" He giggled.

"Nevertheless, my Mousaka was great," he commented.

"Yeah, I bet it tasted like feet," she teased and removed some stray hair from her face. He giggled again, before awkward silence fell upon them. "Thank you," she paused, "for the dinner. It's nice to know someone noticed my absence."

"Actually, Aizit was the first to notice. He seems to be worried about you..." he noticed the disappointed look on her face. "We all are." Another bitter nod.

"Aha..." She used the fork to dumb the rest of the lamb into the water. Nimrod frowned.

"Um...Do you want to share with me what it is that bothers you?" She froze and accidentally dropped the fork into the water as well. It had been so long since she last shared something with anyone. However, Iblis was right about her vulnerability. The company of John, Phillipa and Nimrod had changed her. She missed the honesty and the innocent, and all the virtue she once had but lost, due to the circumstances. Sechrazat shifted uncomfortably.

"I'm...a little upset. With all that's happened," she admitted, looking away. He nodded, trying to thing of something to say.

"You mean, all that has happened today, or in general?" She sighed.

"In general. And today. It...every time I see him, Iblis, it reminds me of all that happened, you know...back then. And...it's sort of...unbearable," another sigh.

"It could always be worse..." She snapped.

"How? How could it be worse? I've been trapped like this all my life! Lost my best years to this madman! Do you think I like carrying an insect around all the time? Well, I HATE INSECTS! Especially the ones that sting! But guess what, I can't abandon him, for then Iblis will find me and IT WILL be worse. Actually, the WORST! You have no idea what he's put me through, how much I should hate him! And still, I feel guilty I left him like that...this poison could kill him and I just abandoned him there..." she started to cry softly, "Father would be so proud of me..." Nimrod unfolded his arms from around his torso and softly placed a palm on her shoulder, pulling her closer to a hug. "Don't..." she stopped him, as the scorpion crawled on her chest. "I don't know how Goliath might react..." she sobbed. He nodded and carefully moved his hand around the back of her neck, and leaned her head against his chest. She closed her eyes and sobbed.

"I'll help you. I promise."

The next morning Mr Groanin woke up feeling more nausiated than ever. He slipped out of his cabin bed, climbed up the stairs, took a good look at the busy deck around him, and walked to one of the sailors who was on his kness rubbing the floor with a metal brush.

"Hey you, lad!" Groanin neared him. The sailor turned around and pointed at himself. "Yeah, you! Could you answer me a question?" The sailor nodded. "Are we...on a boat?" The sailor giggled a little and nodded.

"Yes, sir. You're on the Desert Rose, sir," he smiled. Groanin rubbed his chin with his only hand, and looked a bit farther to see everything one could find on a boat. Yes, he was most definitely sure he was on a boat. Also, he was most definitely sure he was dreaming; for in no way would he ever embark on a boat for real.

"Ahoy, there, mate!" Captain Sebastian, an average sized handsome man, walked from behind him. Groanin turned around hastily. "How's your sleep?" He asked, warmly placing his big palm on the man's shoulder.

"Fine...I suppose. Could you pinch me?" Groanin asked, extending his hand.

"Er...I don't see a reason why I should but...If you want me to..." Captain Sebastian pinched Groanin's only arm with his chubby fingers. The butler jumped up from the pain, rubbed his eyes and looked around again to realize he wasn't dreaming. He was on a boat, for real!

"Mornin' Captain," John appeared from behind them.

"Look who's up so early," Sebastian caressed the boy's hair. "How'd you do, lad?" John shrugged and smiled.

"Good, I suppose," Phillipa came out of the cabin hall as well and stood next to her brother. Captain Sebastian caressed her hair, too. From below-deck his wife, Anna, whom he'd always take with him on his every journey, appeared.

"Oh," the Captain said smiling, "Children, I'd like you to meet my wife, Anna. Come here, sweetheart," he extended his hand and she neared him, wrapping herself around it.

"Hello, children," she spoke with a distinctive Greek accent and softly caressed Phillipa's cheek. "Such beautiful children...Are you siblings?" She asked.

"Um...twins, actually," John said and almost immediately received a caress on his own cheek.

"Twins...your parents are so lucky. So nice..." her eyes became a bit watery, even though she continued to smile.

"So, mateys, who's in for a nice breakfast? Our cook makes traditional fish omelet every morning!" Sebastian rubbed his hands together excitedly. The children looked at each other and Groanin made a gross face.

"Sounds lovely," Sechrazat's voice was heard from behind them. She had her hair caught up and the scorpion was crawling around her neck nervously.

"I'll go have him make some, then!" The Captain said and hurried down below-deck, where the kitchen was. Sechrazat smiled.

"You're not actually going to eat it, are you?" Phillipa asked worriedly. She laughed and shook her head.

"Nope. But you mustn't ever tell them you don't like the food here. Captain takes offense..."

"We'll just have to make it disappear then, I suppose," Nimrod, who had just woke up blinked and stretched as he too walked out of the cabin hall. Sechrazat shrugged.

"Whatever floats your boat," they all laughed at this last comment. All except from Groanin, who was having a real bad time.

"They seemed to like us a lot," Phillipa said. "Such a nice couple..."

"Yes," Sechrazat agreed sort of sadly, "It's a pity they can't have a child of their own. Sebastian wants it so bad..." They children frowned disappointed.

It turned out they didn't have to make the food disappear, because Aizit, who was really hungry -as always- enjoyed the fish omelet so much, he ate everyone's share as well. Nimrod produced a traditional English breakfast for them, which they all enjoyed. The rest of the day was spent around the boat, with Phillipa gazing out of the ocean, Aizit gazing at Phillipa, John doing various chores around the boat-he actually found it very exciting to be a sailor, and Groanin locked inside his cabin. At about seven o'clock in the afternoon, Captain informed them that they'd ran a little late, meaning they'd reach Lebanon sometime during the night. So everyone agreed they'd take turns sleeping, for someone had to stay up and watch when the ship was about to arrive. They decided to split in couples; Groanin and Phillipa, John and Aizit and Nimrod with Sechrazat.

Mr Groanin spent his guard mumbling about how horrible this ship is, and the stomache that had been following him ever since they left Great Britain. Aizit had taken their luggage with him from their hotel in Athens, but forgot -actually left behind on purpose- Groanin's baby food. The worst part of it was that now he'd have to find new baby food in one of those filthy Arabian super-markets, otherwise he'd be obliged to consume the much more filthy Arabian food. Phillipa used her focus word to make an MP3 player appear, where she'd listen to her favorite songs instead of Groanin's jibber-jabber. The next to stay up was Aizit and John, but the older djinn took their place for the boys simply wouldn't wake up. Feeling sorry for all she'd put him through, Sechrazat pleaded her partner to let John sleep a little more, and enjoy the soft lullaby-like rocking of the Desert Rose.

It was 3.47 am, the sky was as starry as ever and the deck almost empty. Nimrod snapped his fingers and produced two chairs and a wooden dinning table. Sechrazat rolled her eyes.

"Show off," she groaned and sat opposite him. With another snap appeared a set of red candles, and two glasses of red wine. He also made a set of red napkins in case one of them spilled the wine- for the ship was gently rocking as it shifted through the waves.

"So," said Nimrod taking a sip of his Merlot and not knowing how to go on.

"You don't have to say anything," she interrupted him, for she really didn't want to hear anything. In the soft candlelight he looked more elegant than ever. She on the other hand, felt less beautiful than ever. How could any woman seem beautiful when an insect was crawling around her chest? Especially to a man with such fine taste, as Nimrod. He smiled. His smile was beautiful, not because he was handsome -like Iblis- but because he was honest. You could see in his eyes he was purely honest. _In my eyes he can see I'm binded to an evil djinn, _she thought.

"Nevertheless, I will be honest with you," he continued. "There is, I believe, a way in which I can help you...recover from the effect the binding has had on you." She crossed her long fingers together and , resting her elbows on the table, placed her lower jaw on them.

"I'm all ears."

"I was hoping you'd be all compromises. But I suppose it's a good start," he joked. She didn't find it funny. "So," he took another sip of wine, which by the way she hadn't touched by then, "I trust you are aware with the theory of homeostasis within every djinn...You know the virtue and vice within all of us, and how your tribe genes can affect that..."

"Don't bother. I've done as much research as anyone on that part. But I admit, I never knew there was a way to change what you are, I mean until I met Iblis." He nodded, sort of sympathetically.

"I understand he's changed you a lot. I can recall some memories of you as a child and...well," he chuckled, "you were much different." She nodded and raised a brow. In the soft candlelight her eyes were almost transparent, with two thin pupils in the middle.

"Do go on with your solution, please," she said.

"Alright," he took a deep breath and another sip of Merlot, "I cannot undo the binding. That's something only Iblis has the power to do. And, of course, the Blue Djinn, which, in case you haven't heard, is not going to be my mother for that long."

"I know. I'm sorry for that," she fiddled with the wine glass, making him notice her long, neat nails. Nimrod had the dangerous for a djinn habit to bite his nails, and hers made quite a big impression on him. They were very long and perfectly shaped. He withdrew his glare from her hands to her lips as she continued to speak. As an Arab, her lips were big, round shaped and juicy. It made some strange thoughts occur to him, but he skipped them and tried to focus on what her lips spoke, rather on what they looked like. "I expect your sister will take over next, right?" The question in her voice made him snap back to reality. He looked at her sort of bewildered.

"I'm sorry, I was...someplace else," he smiled, "Could you repeat please?"

"Um...never mind, it's not that important. What was your point anyway?" He tried to remember.

"Ah...my point. My point was that," she noticed a spark in the sky as he spoke. "I can help you, if you help me," as he spoke, a spark moved across the dark sky, leaving a bright tail of light that tore the darkness in two. She gazed up, open-mouthed.

"Shooting stars? I hate shooting stars," she mumbled.

Both his eyebrows flew up and he sat back on his chair in shock. "Oh and why is that?"

"Well...you know...when mundanes see a shooting star...they...wish," she blushed.

"And?"

"And sometimes I feel like fulfilling those wishes..." she continued to blush looking away.

"So what?"

"Well...that's what generous djinn do."

"Is there something wrong with being generous?"

She sighed. "Ah, I know where you're going with this," she jumped up, spilling some of the wine on the table. He smiled and gestured her to sit down again. She did as asked.

"Would you be honest with me, Sechrazat?" he gently asked. She hesitated, for just a tiny moment before she answered. It was the hesitance of someone who could hear a little voice inside their head saying "SAY NO!" while all they wanted to do was say yes. She nodded. "Was it your choice to be a Shaitan?" She looked down at the spilled wine and frowned.

"Why are..."

"Just answer," he placed his own elbows on the table and his head between his palms. This way they were only a few inches away from each other. She avoided his gaze and sat back on her chair, moving away. The woman blinked, looked away, swallowed the wine all at once, but he was still there, staring at her expectantly. And she felt as if he'd never give up.

"No," she bitterly stated. He smiled and sat back as well, taking a final sip of wine.

"Do you want to be a Shaitan, Sechrazat?" She rubbed her eyes and took some dark hair away from her face.

"No."

He desperately wanted to say _"I thought so," _but thought it wiser not to. He streched his hand on the table toward her, his palm wide open. She gave him a confused look.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you," he extended his hand even more, but she didn't move. It was as if someone had glued her on the chair, with a horrified look on her face. "Take my hand," he pointed out. She shook her head. "Sechrazat, I don't mean any harm. If you want me to help you, you must help me as well!" he said. She would still shake her head nervously. "Trust me," he gently said. But it still had no effect, so he started to withdraw his hand and looked down disappointed. However, before he could slide his arm off the table, he felt a firm, warm grip on his wrist. Sechrazat had her eyes fixed on his palm. He softly re-opened his hand and she slid hers on it. For half a minute nothing happened, yet all of sudden, the deck became warmer, the two djinn closed their eyes and Captain Sebastian, who was in his cabin, softly cuddling with his wife as they would finish their lovemaking, had a... -as silly as it might sound- hunch. Yes, he had a hunch that this time their biggest wish, having a child, was about to become true.

Sechrazat opened her eyes and sharply withdrew her hand.

"You used me! You absorbed power!" she exclaimed and jumped up, now spilling all the wine on the table. Nimrod threw a sad look at his ruined wooden table and stood up as well.

"It was only to..."

"Why? Why did you lie?" her eyes watered as she backed off.

"Please, just listen I..."

"I'm tired of listening, Nimrod!" She shook her head, "Shame on you," and quickly paced away, almost ran all the way to the cabin hall. Nimrod sat back on his chair and buried his forehead between his palms.

"Why do I even bother sometimes?" He wondered and filled himself another glass of wine.


	22. ES5: Trust me

"You will do as you're told, you filthy scum!"

Goliath banged his enormous fist on the table, causing a small crack, even though it was a metal one.

"And I don't want to hear not a single other one of your unbearably stupid justifies! Idiot!" He stood up and, placing his fingers below the table, turned it upside down. The tall, skinny boy opposite him began to shake with fear, "NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Before you could say disappear, the boy had disappeared.

From another shady corner of the room, a slim girl -probably a teenager- neared the enormous man, who was seated back on his also enormous chair -it had to be big and strong to tolerate his weight- and nervously fiddled a ring between his fingers, breathing loudly as he did.

"You shouldn't yell at him like that, you know," she bravely said, crossing her arms around her waist.

"And who are you to tell me what to do, midget woman?" He said, now seemingly amused.

"First, I'm not a midget, and second, you say I'm your daughter, so you have to..."

"Shut up," he sharply interrupted her. The girl was left open-mouthed for a second.

"Don't talk to me like that. I'm not obliged to sit here and listen to you, you know!" she exclaimed. He chuckled.

"Then why don't you GO TO HELL AND LEAVE ME IN MY PIECE AND QUIET?"

Hearing such words from a man who was supposed to be your father, could only worsen Sechrazat's pain. Three nights ago, some men had come to her original house, in India. They left her untouched, didn't harm the girl at all. But they took her mother -and only relative- with her. Her aunt, Nabla, hadn't even offered to take the custody. She knew she couldn't face the girl's father in court. Goliath was rich -as most djinn are, and more than usually, for he's also greedy. So greedy that, even though he'd hardly ever tried to meet his daughter, when it came to giving her away to somebody else, he preferred to keep her to himself, even if she didn't matter at all to him.

The girl slowly turned around, hiding her tears, and walked out of the door as proudly as she could. But as soon as the door closed shut behind her, she burst into tears and ran out of the huge mansion and into the garden. There, in the company of the pale moon, she leaned behind some bushes, buried her face between her knees and cried her heart out.

Suddenly, through the shadows and trees was heard a noise. Sechrazat jumped up in fear that her father had followed her in order to punish her for misbehaving. However, the figure that showed up behind the trees was much shorter and slimmer than her father. And handsome, as well. The man walked a little closer to her, and she backed off, frightened.

"Relax. You've nothing to fear from me," he reassured her and bent on his knee, to be closer to her face. "What's your name?" Brought up in a rural Indian village, by a Marid and away from the real, cruel world, Sechrazat didn't hesitate at all to reveal her identity. The man smiled.

"I'm Iblis," he extended his hand to greet her. Sechrazat had just got her wisdom teeth out, and one of the first things her father taught her was to never shake hands with practically anybody. She nodded and smiled, but didn't take his hands. "So," he continued, a bit annoyed she hadn't shook hands, "What brings you out there on such a cold night?" He rubbed his shoulders and did a low "brr" noise. She giggled softly, but returned to her sad face when she spoke again.

"My father. He's...horrible," she looked down at her feet.

"Aw...those grown-ups can never understand, am I right?" he gently spoke and moved to sit next to her. "What did he do to you?"

"Well," she shrugged, "He yells at me all the time. For no reason. And today Ahmed, my half-brother, did something stupid and father was yelling at him like crazy. So," all of this time Iblis was listening carefully -or at least pretending he was listening. "I step up to defend him and he starts yelling at me! He even said I could go to hell!" she burst in tears again. Iblis made a sad face and softly put his arm around her shoulders.

"Aw...that's so horrible..." he faked a gentle voice.

"I know!" she exclaimed, burying her head in his chest. It was the chance he'd been looking for.

"Hey, stop crying..." he softly placed two fingers on her lower jaw, and pressed her head up to face him, wiping a tear off her cheek with his other hand. "It's alright. You can be friends with me, you know," he smiled a beautiful smile. The girl smiled back.

"Really?"

"Of course," he extended his palm again, this time a lot more warmly, waiting for her to take his hand. She hesitated a bit. "Here, you can trust me..." Sechrazat softly slid her fingers across his palm, and finally united hers with his, their life lines pressing together.

There was no sound but a low moan, as the knife that unexpectedly appeared on Iblis' hand violently tore apart the flesh on the girl's wrist.


	23. Hot and Cold

_**Hi again! If you scroll down the story, you'll find some extra Info I posted. I've also made a couple of sketches which I'm planning to finish, color and upload. =)**_

_**Hope you enjoy your reading!**_

_**XOXO,**_

_**Nameless**_

Aizit was sleeping on the deck when he felt something warm on his shoulder. He jumped up to face one of the sailors who gestured ahead of them; The Port of Beirut. The lights were simply blinding, the dark sea water below them had changed into a colorful fest of reflections. From this distance, little noise could come to your ears, something that, as Aizit later discovered, did not apply within the city of Beirut. He had been born and raised in India, and this was the first time he ever visited this part of the world. Running down the stairs, he heard a loud "YES!" from one of the cabins at the back of the hall; that was where Captain's, Lieutenant's etc cabins were. Aizit ignored the exclamation and walked to cabin 402, where John was still sleeping. He pushed the door open gently, trying not to make any noise, but before he could know it felt his head land on the floor, as he bumped on something. John rushed out of bed and onto the light switch, only to burst in laughter when he saw his fellow stroke his head and curse something in Hindu.

"What's all the rush about?" John asked, still smiling.

"We're here! In Lebanon!" The boy exclaimed and jumped up excitedly, forgetting about his injured head. John felt some excitement in his own muscles and clapped.

"Awesome! Let's go wake up Phil and the others," he said and, not even grabbing a coat set off to the hall.

But, to their surprise, all but Nimrod were already awake. Groanin had an intense stomach pain, Phillipa was too excited to sleep and Sechrazat...well she claimed to have nausea, yet John didn't believe her for last morning she was just fine.

"Plus, nausea doesn't cause red, swollen eyes and a running nose!" Phillipa added when her brother shared his thoughts with her, later on that evening.

Anyway, they woke up Nimrod and, having gathered their luggage and made sure they left nothing behind -especially the first Map Segment- stood on the deck, waiting for the ship to make port and enjoying the hot air wiping their faces. Well, everyone but Groanin was enjoying it. His lack of sleep and inaccurate supply of baby food had only worsened the fact he was feeling sea sick for two days now, and had to settle with the extraordinarily tasteful -yet not satisfying- food Nimrod would produce for the six of them.

Before they got off the ship, Captain Sebastian shook Sechrazat's hand passionately.

"We hope to see ya again, Mrs. Every time you embark on me old dolly-belle here," by that he obviously meant the Desert Rose, "Something lucky happens!" Sechrazat raised a brow.

"Define lucky...?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well," he sighed and smiled, "Anna thinks she's with child!" The woman's eyebrow flew up as she blinked again and again.

_That's impossible..._, she thought. But then again, being able to make a pencil out of thin air was also impossible, or being immune to scorpion venom was also impossible. Yet she could do and be both. A smile lit up her exotic features.

"This is wonderful!" she warmly placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm very happy for you..." Actually what she felt right now was much more than simple happiness. Helping mundanes was something she'd never do anymore, yet she somehow knew this had happened through her power. So, the only logical explanation -Sechrazat was a big fan of logic- was that earlier that night, when Nimrod absorbed some of her power he'd only done it to help grant Captain Sebastian his wish. Benevolent use of power would definitely add some light colors in her soul mirror. She smiled broadly thinking about the whole new image awaiting her.

After their waving-farewell and thanking the Captain and crew for their services, Groanin was the first to wonder where they'd spent the rest of the night. To answer, they needed a map and a Guide to the local hotels. With a snap of her fingers, Sechrazat produced a map, while Phillipa was checking through a local Guide Book they purchased from a mini-market. They sat on a park bench, opposite the sea side.

"So," the woman said, pulling some hair back and pointing at a certain spot on the map where bold **LEBANON **letters laid, and dragging it much lower where an even bigger **SAUDI ARABIA** was, "As you can see here, the distance will be kind of a problem. We could make it by whirlwind though...shouldn't be more than a couple of hours..."

"You don't imply we'll be traveling on moving wind through the desert during the night, I say, I don't want to believe you're implying we'll be..."

"I clearly said it, Groanin," she interrupted him, not baring to hear him go through it again. The butler frowned dismissively.

"I don't think it's a bright idea, Sechrazat. In fact, not bright at all," Nimrod spoke to her for the first time after the events of earlier that night. She bit her lower lip for a tiny second, unable to decide how to deal with the situation.

"Um...in that case," she blushed slightly and looked away at the city expanding above their heads. "Beirut is famous for its hotels. We could check-in for a night..."

"This seems a pretty good one," Aizit said, grabbing the Guide Book from Phillipa's hands and pointing at the page she'd been reading. "Le Royal Beirut..." Nimrod took the guy from the boy and glanced through the page, noticing the words sauna and three level jacuzzi and nodding as he did.

"I believe it's a good choice, dear boy," he concluded and passed the Guide to John who was seated next to him.

"But it's fourteen kilometers from here! And it's impossible to find a taxi at 3 am!" Just then, a taxi appeared from around the corner. Aizit gave her a mocking smirk.

"Nothing is impossible, dear," Nimrod corrected her. "You of all people should know." She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again, for she couldn't choose the correct words to talk back at him. Groanin waved for the driver, who stopped a little ahead of them. Having reached an impact on the price, the driver loaded their luggage and they all got in the car.

They reached the hotel at about 3.35 am, and walked into the elegant reception, which, to Groanin's pleasing, had a huge fountain in the middle. Nimrod arranged four rooms and a suite for the night. The suite was intended for the twins, but they agreed to give to Groanin as an apologize for all the horrible things they'd put him through, and to make him stop whining for a while.

Late than night, or at least later that night, Sechrazat locked removed the Emperor Scorpion from her long neck, locked the bathroom door, took off her clothes and sank herself into her hot tub, making sure the water was steaming hot, a temperature that could burn a mundane skill, and increase a djinn's power to the fullest. She dived her head again and again inside the water. She relaxed, feeling the raw power return inside her as her insides warmed up. Ah, the unlimited power. Who could not enjoy knowing they could impose their will on almost anything they choose to? Who wouldn't feel unique, greedy, unstoppable... Suddenly, she felt weird. With her eyes still closed, lost inside her deep thoughts, she felt the water around her become cold. Colder and colder until it was freezing cold, almost ice. Cold water weakens djinn, especially Shaitan who are extra susceptible to humidity as well. Her eyes flashed open and she would have jumped out of the tub, if it wasn't for something, an unknown force, keeping her inside. Unable to move any part of her body, she desperately looked around. On the edge of the bathtub, with his legs crossed and an evil smile on his face, Iblis sat watching her, examining the every detail on her face.

"How..." she mumbled shocked.

"Oh, please don't bother with the questions," he said mockingly, "After all these years you should know better than to try and kill me with scorpion venom. Firstly, this particular species are not _that_ venomous. At least, not enough to kill me before I make it to the first aid kit I always keep in my cars. And of course, I never forget to keep anti-venom in it. Just in case you decide to act brave and stupid, like today," he stood up and took a few steps towards her, enjoying her horrified stare. "I must say I'm greatly disappointed. I expected something much more..." he paused searching for the word, "_clever_ from someone like you. But, I guess no matter how hard you try, some people can never change," he spoke, dipping his forefinger into the water and immediately pulling it out, "Anyway, I'm not going to waste any further time with you. Either you compromise and come with me, or stay there and be frozen to death. Your choice, dear. And this time, think wisely," as he spoke, a strong invisible force pushed the woman downwards so her full body and head was inside the water. It felt horrible, not only because she knew she was completely powerless, but also because the force just wouldn't let her go, until she started to drown. Then, it released her and she flashed her head back out, taking a deep breath as she did. Everything was fuzzy now. "So...ready to reconsider my offer?" He ironically said. She spitted some water and looked at him through the wet curls that covered her face.

"No," came the answer. Sechrazat wasn't loyal, trustworthy or the kind of person who would feel guilty after betraying someone. However, as most evil djinn, she had a tendency to became frustrated easily. And Iblis was clearly pushing her to her limits.

"You're really trying my patience," Another force shoved her into the water again, this time for a little longer. Long enough for her to swallow some water in a meaningless attempt to breathe. When back on the surface, she spit the water out and coughed loudly. Iblis smiled and crossed his hands together, placing them on his lap as he sat back on the edge of the bathtub.

"Now?" She produced a small groan, almost non-existent as her power had totally faded now, along with her ability to resist. No response came. Iblis frowned in anger. "Answer," was his command. She leaned her head back dizzily. "I said answer," he waited and waited and waited for two whole minutes, but no answer came. "ANSWER!" Iblis would rarely yell, for people who can have what they want whenever they want rarely have to. But this time he'd really lost his patience. Rushing on the almost unconscious woman, he shoved her into the water with his own hands, wetting the sleeves of his expensive costume, a gray with black stripes color. However, the water was so cold that he couldn't stand it either. Pulling his hands back out, he looked down inside the tub. Sechrazat's body didn't rise up into the surface, as expected. He rubbed his chin, starring inside the water. She was there, still and silent, below the surface. Various thoughts ran through the endless paths of his mind; he could take the scorpion with him. But what use would it be, without someone immune to the venom, who could carry him around and act like a power transporter? At least, without Sechrazat he was in no danger of someone breaking the binding and releasing a furious Goliath. He decided to smile and walk away. Relieving himself from the annoying bug that was Sechrazat, and dooming Nimrod to never find the Bottle before he did. Oh yes, that was definitely his night. Iblis whistled as he shut the room's door.

Inside the hot tub something moved. A half-frozen head appeared out of the water, its eyes shut and lips grim purple. Sechrazat used the last bits of energy she possessed to slide out of the tub and crawl on the floor to some towels.

"K-k-k-kee-ee-eep w-w-wis-s-hing y-y-you m-m-oron," she whispered between clinched teeth

_EXTRA INFO:_

_King Scorpio pic through Google:_

_._

Le Royal Beirut:

_.?aid=300530_


	24. Waking up in Beirut

The problem with Saudi Arabia is that everything is being controlled. The Emirates, that was where Sechrazat's mansion was, was considered a whole different state, and they would all have to go through "anti-terrorist search" both on their way in and out. And getting in would be the easy part. But on their way out, they had to carry the second Map fragment, which Ahmed had stolen from Delphi museum and was waiting for his sister to come and take it.

John was the first to wake up and quietly made his way to the room's window. And there he saw it, small drops of water on the glass, as if it had rained only everything else was dry. He heard a noise from the bed behind him, somebody shifting in the sheets. Phillipa neared him slowly.

"Has it rained?" she asked, still sleepy and yawning.

"Don't think so," John ran his hand through his messy hair. "But it sure looks like it has..."

It was still early in the morning, the twins found it hard to sleep with all this excitement. Traveling through the desert was something they had done before, yet kept intriguing them, mostly because djinn always feel the desert like their own home. Despite the fact it was only seven in the morning, the two children got dressed up and ready to meet the others down in the breakfast hall. However, they were more than surprised when their room's door knocked. John cautiously opened and came face to face with an as-always-grumpy Groanin, who yawned and leaned his tired head against the wall.

"Sir Nimrod says you should get ready and meet him down at the breakfast hall in less than five minutes, I say..."

"But it's only seven..." Phillipa hurried to argue.

"...Yes," Groanin said sharply, annoyed the girl had interrupted him. "I bet you he knows that, young lady." The butler turned around and disappeared.

"...Now that was weird," John said, "even for Groanin."

"Probably he's as excited as we are and wants to set off earlier..." Phillipa joked.

They hurried down the stairs and bumped on a hyper Aizit, who would jump around as if he were the Justice League Flash and mumble something about black coffee.

"Don't mind him," a woman's voice from behind them said. Sechrazat was holding a cup of some sort of hot beverage. "I gave him some coffee to wake up...and, well he's not really fond of caffeine," she smiled, taking a sip of her drink.

"Why are we all up so early?" Phillipa asked.

"Well," the woman looked outside the glass windows of the hall. "Your uncle thought it'd be better if we set off early, so that we don't get...um...noticed."

The twins nodded and followed the woman further in the breakfast hall, where Nimrod was quietly having his tea and enjoying the full view of Beirut, the hotel had to offer. Noticing the twins come he made some space in the table.

"Good morning children," he smiled, and lowering his voice added, "God make it good..."

"Mornin' Uncle," John sat next to him, and immediately felt his belly groan in frustration. "Um...where's the food?"

"For the moment, John, nowhere. You see, at this time nobody has yet woken up to cook something for us. Don't forget that here is Arabia, and people run on much slower rythms than in New York and London..."

"Hey, that's not true," Sechrazat interfered, "Beirut is nothing like the under-civilized villages you mean when you say Arabia," she stated and leaned her head to the side, some long black hair waving as she did. Nimrod rolled his eyes and with that they all agreed to gather the rest of their possessions and set off.

The whirlwind had to be big. It had to be big enough to fit five djinn and a complaining butler and their luggage. Plus, it had to be strong enough to cross the land and reach the Emirates, before they were surrounded by the freezing veil of night. Once dark, the temperature would be so low, not even the mature djinn would be able to use their powers. So, Nimrod took the liberty of creating the whirlwind. And it was big. And strong. In fact, after a point, the twins thought they were actually on a tornado, rather than a whirlwind. Half way through the desert, though, things got bad. They had to avoid getting close to any human contact, which included the small villages scattered here and there. The problem was they were really small to tiny. So, some of them noticed the whirlwind-tornado, and people even tried to follow it, in case it was some sort of deserted God, an evil spirit, or a Messiah. Finally, they reached the borders to the United Emirates, and dismounted the twirling air, careful not to crash any of their precious luggage, which included one of the three segments. Then, they had to make a plan.

"So, here's the idea," Aizit said, and everyone glared at him in disbelief, as they all sat on the suitcases, in the middle of the desert. "Me and cousin get in, beat the guards up, then Nimrod gets in, does his weird stuff and makes us all look like security guards. Then, we rent a car, go to the mansion, get the thing, and Nimrod turns us into birds, so we fly off holding the seg...um that stuff we're looking for and bye bye suckers!"

There was a pause of silence, before they all burst into loud laughter. "What! It's not like it sucks ok? I put my best into it!" Aizit defended himself.

"So," John said, "Seriously, do you have any idea how we could possibly get in?"

"I do," Groanin said.

** Short chap, I know, I'm really sorry.**

**But, there's only a couple to the finale left, and even though I knew this one wasn't worth the waiting, I promise the rest of it will ;)**

**XOXO**

**Nameless**

**Leave a review if you'd like...you know...comments...ideas...cursing me for being soooo lazy...**

**All are welcomed ;)**


	25. Grab me tight

At some point during their busy day, the security guards in the Border Check of the UAE noticed two strange groups of people; a tall woman with a redhead girl and a boy, and three men, one of which was handicapped. Even though their luggage was full of things, the employees in the radar checking department skipped them, without even opening them. However, as soon as the groups had passed them by, they could barely recall any image of theirs. As if they had been ghosts.

Groanin's idea had involved a little breaking the djinn rules. Him promising the attendants money, Sechrazat doing Snake Eye on the guards, they pretty much went by unnoticed. But the hardest part would be getting out of the checking department without having their stuff touched. And that was when Groanin's plan reached the peek of its geniality. Phillipa and John pretended to have lost their parents, and ran crying on the two guards watching the gates, while he and Aizit were slipping their luggage outside. Shortly after, Nimrod and Sechrazat pretended to be the parents who finally found their children. After a long monologue about how thankful he was, only to waste more of the guard's time, Nimrod took his supposed family and walked out hurriedly to meet Groanin, who had already loaded a taxi and they were all set.

Smiling proudly, the butler expected to receive a lot of compliments for his genious plan that had proved to be so successful.

"I feel horrible about what we did," Phillipa admitted after a silent while. "We fooled these men, and used our powers to escape human law...And this sounds pretty bad to me"

"Oh come on!" Aizit sighed, "What's the point of being a djinn if you don't fool mundanes with it?"

The twins remained silent. Their father was human. What if some djinn fooled him as well? How would that make them feel?

"Mundanes are so stupid and naive," Aizit continued, the twins holding back their growing anger, "They only care for money. Plus most of them are ugly and fat, which shows just how greedy and gluttonous they really are..."

"Aizit stop it," Sechrazat cut him, before he could say more. The boy looked at her puzzled.

"What's your problem?"

"The..ah...I've got a headache. So shut your gob until we get to the mansion, or I'll turn you into something tongueless!" He shrank on his seat and remained silent until the huge, white, Arabian style building rose in front of the road. The Sechrett mansion was a miniature version of the Taj Mahal, with vast gardens and fountains on the front of the building. The outside was all painted a bright white and beige, with some blue and maroon details. Truly classic, it was nothing but beautiful. Still, something felt horribly wrong for John.

"I'd better go alone," Sechrazat admitted. "The place's a mess since the...um...latest incidents..."

"I'll come with you," Nimrod said. She sighed.

"I don't need your..."

"Just to make sure you're not trying to make a fool of us again," he blinked and smiled, guessing what she was about to say and preventing her from doing it. The woman gave him a poisonous glare.

"In that case...go ahead," she gestured to the front door. The was a huge doorknob in the shape of a scorpion, and on the side of the entrance wall an array of buttons, one of which was the doorbell. Sechrazat pushed it, and shortly after the door pulled open. While walking through the garden to the front door, both of them remained silent, partly because they were uncomfortable talking about anything, and partly because there was nothing to talk about. But, just as he was climbing the first stair to the mansion door, Nimrod felt a warm hand wrap around his arm. Five long fingers pulled him back, turning him around. He was ready to protest but she hushed him with another finger on his lips.

"You gave Sebastian's wife a baby...Using my power, didn't you?" He nodded. She sighed. "You should have asked first! I wouldn't say no, even though I don't see the point, but still...you know I would choose to do it. You know I would choose to do the right thing, like back in Rhodes, when the Ifrit took you away I could have left and made my way without you. But I didn't. Because I'm not that person. And you know you can never rely on me, but deep inside there's still some hope I might get over myself and become like...like one of you one day. And I..." she hesitated, "I'm sorry I reacted like that. I'm sorry I always act like that. But that's just me, Nimrod. And if you want to try and help me, you have to accept who I am first." She removed her finger, so he could respond.

"You say you need help, but when help is offered, back away. Like a dog, you try to feed it, yet it's so scared of people it bites you. Would you go near that dog again?" She slowly shook her head. "No sensible mundane or djinn would. When I promise something, it's a promise. That's got to be rule number one for a Marid, because honesty is a very rare and precious gem nowadays. And you can be honest at times, Sechrazat. But when it comes to saving yourself, you can't help it. You choose yourself before others, and that...that's something Iblis taught you. He's been the worst influence you could have...and yet you allow him to affect you and toy you around. But if you hate him so much, why don't you put an end to it? Why do you keep running away, luring him to chase you, every time? You have to choose, Sechrazat, between him and..."

The door flashed open, interrupting him. A woman appeared on the doorstep, dark skinned, with big hazel eyes.

"Sechrazat?"

"Eyshan!" The two embraced each other affectionately. "God you haven't changed a bit..."

"Really? Your brother says he can see new wrinkles on my face every morning..." The other woman sighed in sudden melancholy.

"Oh come on," Sechrazat nudged her on the arm, "That's just him being a jerk!" Eyshan smiled and noticed Nimrod with the corner of her big eye.

"Um...and the sir is?"

"Ah, a friend," Sechrazat smirked, trying to erase the previous conversation from her mind. Nimrod extended an open palm, his finger sliding across his life line.

"Nimrod Godwin. Pleased to meet you," he politely introduced himself.

"Me too..." she shared a look like "OMG HE'S BRITISH!" with Sechrazat for a moment then looked back at Nimrod and smiled. "Please come inside."

Nimrod stepped ahead through the doorstep, but Sechrazat grabbed his arm again, this time harder.

"Ouch! Stop doing that!" He pushed her palm off.

"Be careful with her. And don't eat anything she offers, or drink or touch..." she whispered, caressing his arm as she did. "And sorry for the grip...just reflexes..." He smiled, appreciating her soft touch and went on following Eyshan to the main living room, which was as big as the rest of the house, and, even though there were plenty of furniture, seemed vast and empty. There in the half-light of the room, Nimrod noticed how much eyeshadow the woman was wearing, like a coal black circle around her eyes. Her lips were painted a dark maroon color, to match all of her dark clothes. Too much black is never a good sign, he thought. Sitting on the black couch, the two of them were left alone for another moment, as Eyshan went to get some tea and cookies from the kitchen. Nimrod noticed an object in the shape of a lamp, covered by a purple velvet towel. He was ready to remove the towel, when he felt another grip on his arm.

"Ah! I think I told you not to..."

"Yeah I know, just don't touch," she whispered again, hushing him too.

"Why not?" He whispered back.

"...Cause she's a..."

Right then Eyshan appeared from the corner of the room, where the door to the kitchen was, holding a disk with two porcelain cups, a jar of cookies and one of sugar.

"Um thank you," Nimrod said, and went ahead to fill his cup. Tea was something he'd missed, since it was probably past five o'clock and he hadn't had his yet. But this time he felt a painful pinch on his pants, and carefully placed the cup back on the disk. Eyshan sat opposite them.

"So..."

"Where's Ahmed?" Sechrazat asked, raising a brow.

"Um...he's..."

"Not home?"

"Um...no...he's..."

"Sleeping?"

"Um..not exactly...mostly like..."

"Having a shower?"

"No...not that..."

"DEAD!" Sechrazat widened her eyes, devious to scare off her sudden suspicion.

Eyshan jumped up and started spitting around -a way to scare away bad luck supposedly. "No no! Allah keep death away... He's just...gone."

"What do you mean..gone?" Nimrod, who had been staring at the cup greedily all the time asked.

"Um...I mean...I believe someone kidnapped him..." Eyshan, took a velvet tissue out of her skirt's pocket, and wiped her face right below her eyelid, turning it black. Then Nimrod realized the black circle wasn't eyeshadow, but running mascara, that had spread all over the woman's eyes. Had she been crying? Or wasn't it mascara? He couldn't see very well, because the room was getting darker and darker...Then suddenly it was too dark for them to make out where Eyshan was...Nimrod felt another grip on his hand, Sechrazat's palm slid across his and she locked her fingers around him.

"AZIMUT!"


	26. ES6: Thank you

Light burst inside the room as lit candles appeared out of nowhere. Nimrod rubbed his sore eyes and glared ahead of him; Sechrazat was squirming inside the arms of something that wasn't exactly human. Nimrod recognized it; it was a demon. A black widow, a demon that looks like a spider but has human characteristics as well. With eight strong legs, the black widow was holding Sechrazat high above ground and staring deep inside her golden eyes. The woman threw a quick and desperate glance at the man in red.

"QWERTYUIOP!"

The spider demon was suddenly wrapped with an iron chain. It lost its balance and fell do the ground, but so did Sechrazat. Nimrod dashed to the Shaitan and lifted her up by the elbow. The woman kicked towards the spider, as if she was trying to back off but attack at the same time.

"What on earth is this thing doing here?" Nimrod exclaimed, glaring at the struggling demon with disgust.

"Isn't it obvious? Trying to eat us!" Sechrazat barked and got on her feet, dusting off her pants. "I knew something was wrong..." she pulled some stray hair away from her face. The man next to her raised a brow.

"But you didn't say so."

"Yes because Eyshan always makes me feel weird." she justified.

"The Ifrit must have set up another trap...Replaced her with the true Eyshan." Nimrod explained.

"I guess." the woman backed off slowly and headed outside. "There's nothing for us here." Inside the house, the large demon was still screaming and breathing heavily.

"Sechrazat." She froze in her spot. They were in a good distance from the car and the chance the children could see them was minimal. Nimrod didn't want his nephew and niece to witness this drama anyway. He neared the tall woman in a casual, yet serious fashion. "

"What?" she mumbled, staring expectantly at the Marid.

"I need this Bottle just as much as you do." he said. "But that's not why I am here. A long time ago you had asked me to help you and I considered it wiser to make as much distance from you as possible. But I was wrong. That is not how a gentleman acts." there was some bitterness in his voice, "I hope you can forgive me."

The woman stared at him for a while, then blinked repeatedly, trying to figure out if this was real. Nimrod was preparing to head off, when, all of sudden, Sechrazat crushed on him. Her body was warm but stiff at the same time. The Marid wrapped his arms around her waist softly, as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Thank you Nimrod."

* * *

><p><em>Wow it's been a long time since I last updated this..<em>

_It's so hot in my cou__ntry right now I couldn't help but return to Kerr's fire made djinn... Plus I thought it was high time this story got a proper ending xD_

_ So stay tuned for updates, they'll come in random by they'll come ^^_

_Check out my other stories, find me on dA, feel free to PM me etc _

_XO_

_-Nameless_


	27. And the adventure begins

Outside the mansion everyone was lost in their own thoughts. John was thinking about the dangers that awaited them while they would try to retrieve the last fragment, Phillipa was still doubting Sechrazat's loyalty and thinking of how they should keep their eyes open for another trap, Aizit was thinking about the redhead sitting next to him on the hot pavement and Mr Groanin was pondering over how likely were Arabian mini-markets to sell his favourite brand of baby food. This was the reason no one spotted Nimrod and Sechrazat when they first walked out the mansion's yard.

Nimrod noticed her staying behind a little and turned around, only to see she was digging in her pocket for something.

"Is everything alright?" he asked with his distinct accent and she spontaneously smirked.

"Huh? Yes, I was just…." she muttered and finally pulled something out. It made a sound much like a chain or car keys ringing together, for that was what it was. The woman pressed a button and Nimrod jumped a little as a car alarm was heard from somewhere behind him. "Ha!" Sechrazat exclaimed and brushed past him, heading for some bushes. Just then the children spotted them first and made their way towards their Uncle who was watching his fellow djinn make her way to the bushes. Sechrazat started to dig through and pulled some branches aside. Underneath the thick yet dry flora appeared the handle to a car door. Sechrazat pulled it open with all her strength after unlocking it with her keys. Once the door opened the plant collapsed, revealing a dust stained Grand Cherokee that must have been a deep green colour in its glory. She smiled. "You must excuse me for its shape, but I have not driven this for a couple of years now -or more…

Mr Groanin wore his biggest frown.

"It's full of dirt and dust...and branches." he groaned.

"Is that an offer to clean up I hear?" Sechrazat smirked playfully at him.

"No. Never. Not under any circumstances, I say, not ever will I…"

"Please?" Sechrazat asked in her sweetest look -which was not very sweet to be honest.

"Must I repeat my lady? I think I made it very clear, I say I made it crystal clear that..."

But before he could finish Nimrod had already handed him a Pro Steam car-seat cleaner that was fully charged and ready to use. "Put it to good use," the djinn said, patting his butler on the shoulder. Mr Groaning, surprisingly, groaned again then headed straight to the car. The others moved a bit further aside and found shelter from the burning sun under the leaves of an untrimmed Phoenix tree -a palm tree subspecies. There Aizit finally got his chance to get a little closer to Philippa, whose red hair had charmed him though he was unaware of the fact she did not like him the least bit.

"So...what's it like back in England?" he said, nudging her shoulder softly to get her attention. Philippa almost snapped and if it weren't for her good manners she would have pushed him off of her.

"I don't live in England."

"Then where do you live?"

"We live in America" John intervened, trying to get Aizit to talk to him and not his sister. He glared at Philippa because John had no idea she did not like his new friend and actually thought she was trying to steal him from her brother. The boy then stepped between the two of them, saving his sister from a very uncomfortable conversation.

Soon Groanin was done with the car and they could all step inside. The children hurried to take a seat at the spacious backseat that had an open top. The jeep was perfect for travelling through the desert, the back seat was actually convertible and had a small hole on top where one could climb and seat on the roof -Sechrazat loved that. Nimrod and she stayed behind a bit and he exploited that to get some answers. He gently grabbed her wrist and she turned to face him with a surprised look on her face.

"What were you trying to tell me about Eyshan?" he asked. The look on the woman's face darkened.

"She's a witch." Nimrod raised a brow at that. "I mean, not like the Western witches and all… she just knows many good binding spells, despite being mundane. It's how she got my brother to marry her after all…"

"She bound him?" Nimrod asked, shocked and disgusted at the same time. He was not fond of the idea of marriage either way and what he'd just heard only made his impression of it worse.

"In a way." Sechrazat shrugged and gestured for him to move along.

Mr Groanin insisted on taking the wheel. He'd missed driving -even though he'd never drove a jeep before, neither a car with its wheel on the right side. But Sechrazat did not mind as soon as he didn't ruin the car. She rarely used it today but it brought back many blissful memories from the time she was still a young archaeologist and drove with it to all the excavations she took part in.

"So where are we off too?" John asked. Sechrazat, who had taken her place in the backseat along with the children, reached beneath her seat for a piece of paper that looked decayed. She unfolded it producing an old and barely readable map.

"Most of my relatives move to our cottage near Al Jawf at this time of year. We own a big farm-house in the beginning of the An-Nafud desert. I need to talk to them and find out what happened to Ahmed."

"Wow, wait, you didn't say he wasn't here!" Aizit complained.

"You didn't ask." Sechrazat talked back.

"You lost your brother?" Philippa asked, a bit sympathetically.

"Kind of. But I am sure I'll find out what happened when I talk to the others…" Sechrazat muttered, frowning slightly.

"You guys never use cell-phones, do you?" Aizit growled.

Sechrazat drew out her phone and showed him the screen. There was no signal at all. Aizit drew out his own phone and so did Nimrod at that remark.

"You do realize we are very close to a war zone, don't you?" Sechrazat addressed her cousin who was obviously offended by now. He did not like being wrong. He preferred to boast about how exciting his life as a djinn was, how he fought great dangers back in India, his homeland, and how his reactions were always the result of deep thought. And no one believed him but John who had looked up to him from the very start of their journey.

Soon the tires started to sink a little in the sand and Groanin sped up so that they wouldn't sink. Hot air wiped their faces and nobody minded but Groanin.

** Wow, finally getting it out of me! Brace yourself for the epic closure! **

**I hope you enjoyed your reading. Leave a review on your way out if you'd like!**

**-Name**


	28. ES7:Black Jack

_There's an abundance of casinos in Las Vegas but only one of them is called Las Vegas Casino. It is rumored that this was the first casino ever built in Nevada and no one is sure of who the owner is but they all agree he's not a local. Las Vegas Casino is an impressive building the size of a seven-floor skyscraper and is illuminated by neon lights of various colors -as most facilities in the area are- with a huge, bright pink neon sign on top that marks its name. Twelve spotlights illuminate the entrance and the five fountains that stand in a row, shooting water with precise modulation. The water normally has a golden hue but the spotlights sometimes give the impression that it's blue, pink, green, red or even transparent. The entrance is decorated with gold -or at least what seems to be gold- and looks much like the entrance to a circus only a couple hundred times more luxurious. In the older times it used to be covered by a scrim that the bouncers would swoop aside for anyone with a pass or enough money to enter. Later on the competition became too much and the owners were forced to let anyone in, rich or not. It was pointless to tell them apart after all._

_Nobody cared how many households had been wrecked in there._

_The inside of the casino was just as impressive. Crystal chandeliers were hung from the ceiling above the slot machines that were all equiped with a fluorescent screen and buttons. A red carpet covered all the floor and despite the hundreds of guests every night there was never a single stain to be spotted. The carpet had a simple pattern of golden swirls on that no one paid attention to as it was too simple compared to the rest of the place. There were small tables here and there, all covered with baize and usually occupied by those who preferred to try their luck against each other and not the experienced dealers the casino had to offer. Their chances were poor against them, even though most of them were not very good with the cards in that they didn't have special memorization skills or were that clever. But they were all djinn._

_The small circular lights that were placed on the ground around the entrance, forming a little path, illuminated the wrinkles of an old man as he entered the facility. Despite his age his features were full of life; his eyes had a bizarre spark. He also looked like a very fine sir, rare quality to be found among casino clients. Don't be mistaken, the man was no less of a gambler than anyone else in there. He just happened to be very smart. And on top of that, he was an experienced player. He'd been trying his luck for three weeks in a row this month, always arriving at the same hour and heading straight for the same semi-circular table, opposite the same dealer every single time. And that night was no exception. The man took his place opposite the dealer. That particular table happened to be empty at the time and the woman behind it had her back turned on him, digging for something in the cupboards that could not be seen from the client's point of view. Suddenly she turned around and gasped a bit upon facing him._

_She'd been watching the man. She remembered each of his visits, she could not help but admire his determination. Every time he sat opposite her he would greet her with the words "I can't hide from you that I am feeling lucky tonight!" and a huge smile. It had not taken long for Sechrazat to realize how he had had all his teeth replaced with false ones. It had also not taken her long to realize that the man had an strong memory, that he was extremely clever and that had it not been for her djinn powers he would have defeated her in no time. Sechrazat would always smirk at him -being polite was not a choice around here- and start dealing._

_In Black Jack the dealer is the first to get a full hand (all of the cards they're going to be playing). The player's goal is to try and score a total card value that is higher than the dealer's. During the game the player has the ability to "hit" -ie take another card- or "stop" as the dealer will keep handing him cards that must not exceed a total value of 21. Should the player hit 21 he scores unless the dealer has pulled of a Black Jack, a jack and an ace._

_The old man was always very close to the game's goal. Sechrazat would make him lose the last moment as she replaced her cards with some of higher value depending on his draw. Some other times she would change the card she was about to deal thus "busting" him (giving him a total card value over 21). What had done such an impression on her, however, was the fact he never gave up. Not even when she cheated him and he was proven wrong despite his calculations. She could not imagine herself in his place. Unlike him, she would have gotten frustrated and dumped the game after the first failed attempt._

_The first round ended miserably for the man but the second was a different story. At the end of the game he had collected a total card value of 21. Sechrazat could easily change her cards -she had only drawn two this time- into a Jack and an Ace. And that was what she had to do. That was her job. To cheat people but at the same time feed them with hope so they would keep coming back again and again. And she could never see the point in this because she knew that it was clearly not about the money. No, the Ifrit had set those facilities up just so they could torment humankind. She suddenly felt very frustrated that she was forced to cheat this poor man and make him comeback at the same hour, at the same table tomorrow only to be heartbroken again. She wanted to help him._

_"Well sir" she muttered, flipping her cards over so he could see. "Seems like I've only scored 20." she smiled. The look in his face was indescribable. She would never forget the way his whole face lit up and he jumped off his chair as if youth had returned to him. And she would also never forget the feeling that she was behind this happiness. She had helped someone._

_In this way, Sechrazat kept working at the casino every night and dozing off during the day. Her first few attempts to help people went by unnoticed. But one night a young Jonathan Teer was watching over the tables and could not help but be alarmed by the joyful cries of a lady that had just scored at a Black Jack game._

**Akward filler but I promise I'm getting somewhere!**

** Stay tuned for updates, leave a review on your way out if you'd like ;)**


	29. The Sechretts

In between the coarse sand-cliffs, deep in the Al Jawf desert was located the Sechrett family cottage. Or what they claimed to be a cottage. Admittedly it looked more like a stable, with its white walls that formed a perfect rectangle and the infinite rows of windows. A small stone fence surrounded it and thus implied there was a yard behind the tall building. For one thing the house was the least to say unsophisticated but as the sun illuminated its white walls it really stood out in the middle of nowhere. Frankly, Philippa couldn't believe that someone as boastful as the Sechretts would accept to live in this humble residence. Little did she know that after the tragedy with King Scorpio the Sechrett line had taken the downfall.

The minute they faced the house the look on Sechrazat's face darkened. She'd spent the whole journey sitting on the roof with Philippa after she'd forced Groanin to turn up the radio when "Nights in White Satin" came on. Groanin cursed in secret and turned it up but soon they drove too deep in the desert and the signal was lost. It was Sechrazat's turn to curse in secret -that was her favourite song.

By the time they'd reached the front 'yard', if this half-ruined fence could ever be called a yard, Groanin had already started to mumble about how he'd love a cold shower and his baby food. Aizit, who had not taken his eyes off Philippa for a single moment during the trip, finally took some time off staring at her to tease the poor butler. But when Philippa narrowed her eyes at him he instantly bit his tongue. No literally, he bit his tongue. He flinched in pain, forcing a gasp out of John who'd been slightly leaning on his side the whole time. Philippa chuckled in secret while Sechrazat cursed him in Arabic. The boy shrunk in his corner.

The thing with the whole tongue-incident was that Aizit's wound didn't look like it was closing any time soon, at least without medical help. And Sechrazat knew there was a herbalist in the house that could at least seize the pain but she had not intended on stopping here. Frankly, she didn't want them in that house.

"I can see your residence has plenty of rooms." Nimrod commenting. "I don't think I could have booked a better hotel."

Sechrazat growled something at him and jumped off the jeep. "Uhm, I think you should stay here for a bit. I have to...make some arrangements first, ok?" she asked but before anyone could respond she'd turned around and made her way to the door.

"This lady can be very rude at times, I _say_ very rude!" Groanin muttered to himself. Nimrod nodded slightly.

On the back of the jeep Aizit was grieving as if he'd die. He'd stuck his bleeding tongue out and was sobbing slightly. John looked oh-so-concerned about him while Philippa couldn't get the thought he was overreacting on purpose out of her head. She hated that boy, always wanted to be the center of everything.

Sechrazat's new mission was to enter the house in stealth mode. But she failed just upon touching the door knob. To her misfortune one of her sisters was just coming out. The woman looked nothing like the djinn opposite her. She was much taller and very black. She also had coal-black eyes and very long hair that was caught in a perfect side-ponytail -not a single hair stuck out.

"I can't believe! Sechrazat!" she exclaimed in horrible English and swooped the djinn up in two long arms. Sechrazat fidgeted a little.

"He...Hi, Nigromanta, nice to...uh...nice to see you too...you're...squeezing..." she said, almost choking under her sister's grip. The woman placed her down.

"Yes! I'm sorry! Girls! Sechrazat!" she yelled into the house. Sechrazat had just held a finger up ready to beg her for silence but Nigromanta had not noticed and would not care even if she had. The next moment yells and cries were heard from thirteen different female voices. There was a noise as if horses were galloping down a hill alltogether. Sechrazat swallowed hard but she didn't have the time to react as Nigromanta pushed her inside the house and all of her sisters surrounded her.

The thing was that, apart from a couple that were twins, no two sisters of hers looked alike. They all had different skin colours -ranging from very dark to light brown- different eyes, hair, height, voices, attitudes, postures... The one thing they all had in common was they were all descendants of Goliath Sechrett and all of them were mundanes. Yes, not a single djinn sister. And despite that Sechrazat had never felt special in her household. It was quite the opposite actually.

They put her in the middle of a circle and started bombarding her with questions.

"Your hair grew so long!"

"Did you grow taller?"

"What happened to the wristlets I bought you?"

"You should really try a blue-black dye with that eye-color!"

"What do they feed you in England, you look famished!"

"So what about that pyramid you were after?"

"Are you seeing someone?"

"Let me cook something for you!"

"Wanna see my new flower collection?"

All that fuss alarmed the rest of team that decided it was best to check on her. Nimrod went in first in an attempt to make sure it was safe enough for the rest of them -he was the only mature djinn there after all. What he saw upon pushing the door that no one had bothered to close open was astounding. No one noticed him at first up until a short girl that looked about the age of sixteen pointed at him and yelled.

"Oh look a man!"

Fourteen heads turned to look at him and that included Sechrazat's dazzled glare. Nimrod swallowed hard.

"Uhm...hello?" he said. The girl cupped her mouth. Many cheekily glares were exchanged and Nimrod clearly heard one of the girls whispering "Oh my, he's British!"

Soon they had circled him leaving behind a panicked Sechrazat.

"Nice hair..."

"Wew, do you smoke?"

"Guh, you know I could really give you a decent manicure..."

"Have you more bad habits?"

"You know, red is_ sooo_ out of fashion right now..."

"Try blue next time...it should bring out your eyes."

"Talk to us, please, I loooove your accent."

"Asli! The man is not here for you, you know!"

"So what, you're Sechrazat's boyfriend? Sechrazat! Why haven't you told us?"

The fuss was suddenly interrupted by Sechrazat shouting "God no!" and throwing her hands up. Upon seeing that the sisters slowly hushed. Nimrod had turned pale as a hankerchief except for his cheeks -those were firetruck red as his shirt. "All of you! In the kitchen! Now!" she gestured at the kitchen violently and the sisters all wore different faces as they obeyed. Some looked guilty, others offended and that young girl hadn't taken her eyes off Nimrod the whole time.

Sechrazat ran a hand through her hair, moving some stray strands out of her face and glanced at Nimrod.

"I...sorry." she muttered. He glared at her with something that wasn't exactly puzzlement. But to her relief he didn't look frustrated. "Uh..." was all she had to breathe before she turned away and rushed to the kitchen, closing the door behind her. There was some yelling and Nimrod could swear he heard somebody crying then after twenty whole minutes Sechrazat came back out looking all flushed and frustrated. She opened her mouth to say something but her throat had been so tired out that she could barely speak.

"Tell them to come." she addressed Nimrod, who in the meantime had taken a seat in the house's huge and most comfortable couch.

When John and Phil entered the house they, too, felt their jaws drop open. Sechrazat was fidgeting behind the crowd of sisters that were all about to circle the twins now. They both felt intimidated, actually John felt a little scared too.

"You accept children on your teams, too?" a short woman with very curly hair asked. From her accent one could tell she was Spanish.

"Uh..." Sechrazat hurried to explain, "They're not children! They're...they're midgets." she slightly lowered her voice as if she didn't want to offend the twins. The woman, whose name was Manella raised a thick brow.

"Hey! We're not-" John begun but was interrupted by a violent shove of Philippa's elbow in his stomach. "Yes we totally are midgets" he breathed, slightly folding in two from the pain.

"Oh really?" Manella doubted.

"Manella! You are rude!" Nigromanta exclaimed, grabbing her sister's arm and pulling her back. "Very sorry. We make up with dinner?" she asked in her poor English. John noticed how big and white her teeth were and how her whole neck was covered in jewelery. It was clear that this woman originated from southern Africa.

"I would love some dinner actually." Nimrod spoke for the first time after a long silence. Sechrazat was a bit relieved to hear he had not swallowed his tongue yet.

"Good. Lumina cooks." Nigromanta explained pointing at a sister that had been standing behind the others as if trying to hide and instantly blushed when she got pointed at.

"Uh..." Lumina looked much older than most of the women around. She had an average height and her skin was the colour of milk chocolate. Her curved nose betrayed her Indian origin and she had big brown eyes that were always illuminated by some dark blue eyeshadow. Contrary to most of her sisters she was very timid. "Well..."

"There's no need to go in trouble. Just tell us where the nearest market is and I will purchase some food, I say the finest baby food I can find." it was Mr Groanin who had just entered the house. Lumina glanced at him. He glanced back at her but once she noticed she looked away. At that moment Harry Groanin had to admit he really saw something very charming in the eyes of that woman. Lumina stepped back, trying to conceal herself among her sisters. Mr Groanin was left staring starstruck at her.

Sechrazat would have never accepted to stay for the night if it hadn't been for Nigromanta insisting on dinner and refusing to let her see their grandmother until she accepted. She got Asli, a young sister of hers that was a herbalist, to tend to Aizit's tongue and had them all seated at the spacious living room. Finally she left the others alone and followed her sister upstairs at Grandmother's bedroom.

The girls may have been a bit rude at first but soon they lost their interest in the guests. Most of them were actually very polite and offered them refreshing beverages and snacks. Mr Groanin was constantly throwing glances at the kitchen, where Lumina had set to prepare their dinner. Asli, whose skin had the colour of ivory and her hair were long and falling free on her shoulders, was carefully trying to help Aizit's wound seal. She reassured him it was nothing fatal or irreversable but he felt horrible for having made a fool of himself in front of Philippa. John surprisingly found himself a new friend. On a chair opposite him sat a skinny girl with a very long ponytail. She was too busy playing on a Nitendo DS to notice him but he definitely took his time checking her out. Her skin was just one tone lighter than Sechrazat's, she had small eyes of light blue colour and her hair was dyed a pastel pink colour. She was dressed in all black and that included the shiny black gloss on her thin lips. Finally she noticed him staring and looked up.

"Have you any problem?" she spoke in much better English than most of her sisters.

"Uh...no. No, I..." John trumbled.

"Good." she raised a brow at him then returned to her game. However later on, when Philippa left his side to take a book from the huge bookcase in the room, the girl moved right next to him on the couch. "The name's Tori." she said, giving him a hand. John took it and shook it lightly.

"I'm John."

"Nice name. Pitty you're a midget." she winked at him. John prepared to say he wasn't a midget when the fresh memory of Phil's elbow in his stomach stopped him. "You ever heard of Yu-Gi-Oh?" John had heard of Yu Gi Oh but he was no fan of anime or any cartoon of that sort. She pushed the Nitendo in his lap. "If you beat that level, I'll give you a whole deck of Yu-Gi-Oh cards." John blinked. He didn't care about the cards but he had nothing better to do than sit and wait for the moment. So he took the Nitendo and started to play with her watching him over his own shoulder.

Meanwhile upstairs Sechrazat was pushing the door to Grandmother's bedroom open only to find time had indeed ravaged her homeplace. And that included the old woman who had shrunk on the bed. From a distance her face looked like a giant raisin. Of course Sechrazat knew she was over 300 years old and that was very old for a djinn. She walked in the room and softly shut the door behind her.

"Grandmother?" she breathed, choking back tears. "Grandmother it's me, Sechrazat." she softly sat on the bed beside the old woman and took her skeletal hand in hers. There was a pause of silence that broke with Grandmother's hoarse voice.

"My child..." the woman breathed. From he tremour in her voice Sechrazat could tell breathing was a painful process. "Sen buradasın..." (You're here) Grandmothers mother language was Turkish. The younger djinn assumed she could not remember the little English she knew at the moment. She was fine with that though. Turkish had been easy for her to learn as a child and she could still speak -of course not as fluently as she used to.

"Susmak..." (Hush) Sechrazat whispered. The woman didn't open her eyes.

"Tehlike bekliyor...Kardeşin bize karşı isyan etti..." (Danger awaits, Your brother has turned against us)

"Ahmed!?"

"Evet." (Yes)

"Bu imkânsız!" (That's impossible!)

"_Hiçbir şey_ imkansız değildir!" the old woman tensed, "Kalbi karanlık bir güç tarafından esir almıştır..." (_Nothing_ is impossible. His heart has been enslaved by a dark force.)

"Eyshan?"

Grandmother did not respond.

"Nana? Nana?!" Sechrazat breathed, nudging the old woman softly. She could not tell if Grandmother had fallen asleep or was...uh, she didn't even want to think about that. Nigromanta, who had been watching the whole conversation without Sechrazat's knowledge appeared behind the door.

"She does sometimes." she spoke softly. "Let her rest."

The djinn gasped when she first became alarmed to her sister's presence. She realized now why Grandmother had chosen to speak in her mother-language. Thankfully Nigromanta knew nothing of Turkish. There was no way she could've understood the conversation. She sighed in relief. Sechrazat nodded and pursed her lips to keep them from shaking. She kissed Grandmother's hand and got off the bed. Her sister was awaiting her with a warm hug but the djinn wanted none of that. She just walked past Nigromanta and headed to the stairway.

**Wow what was that! And why did this come out so huge!?**

**Anyway, we're still on the bridge to the good stuff. But it'll come. Soon... If you spot any mistakes on the Turkish please let me know. I had to use google for those and as we all know Google Translate is not the most trustworthy site in the world. -.-''**

** Hope you enjoyed your reading, R&R!**

**-Name**


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